All Downhill From Here
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Newly qualified NCIS Agent Meredith Brody brings some special talents to the job, and is therefore assigned on an undercover assignment, and months posing as a married couple bring her closer to another agent than she ever expected, all while they try to solve their case.
1. Undercover

**So, welcome to this fic. I wrote this for the most part during NaNo this year, but I've been planning it since March. It's backstory for Brody and Gibbs, and you all know how much I love them. It's probably totally inaccurate, but I don't care because I love them so much! Anyway. Here we go, please read and review.  
-Shin xx**

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Meredith Brody had only been off of probation a few weeks but already she thought she'd made an impact for her team. Somehow, though, she felt like she was about to be told off. She didn't know anyone else her level who had ever been pulled out of a strategy meeting by their team leader, and she didn't know many who had made the walk down this corridor and then walked back up. Apparently her silent questions were getting for Agent Bradley Ryan, who just looked at her and nodded. "We're going to see the director."

"Why me?" She couldn't help but ask. She just didn't understand what she'd done. She'd been trying so hard. Brody knew that she hadn't been the best student when she'd been training, and as a probie she'd taken maybe one or two risks more than she should.

"If I knew I'd tell you." Ryan looked at her over his shoulder as they walked through the bullpen for the more senior teams that were near the director's office. She was too nervous to even really think. "The rules here are that you don't speak unless you're spoken to, you don't give opinions or ask questions unless you're asked to. You're still a junior agent."

"Yes sir." She knew full well she was still a junior agent, and she was pretty sure she knew not to talk in situations like this. The motto of the more junior agents was 'stealth and silence'. They could all almost turn themselves invisible in situations where it was required. Maybe that was her problem. Maybe she wasn't good enough.

"Brody." Clearly Ryan was thinking along the same lines, as he stopped and took her by the shoulders. There was a look of worry on his face too, maybe this was an odd situation for him as well.

"Sir?" She prompted, hoping that he wasn't going to chew her out then and there for something. She deserved to be fired in private at least if that was what was happening. She thought that the indignity of a public firing might be worse than the firing itself.

"You've not done anything that might get you in trouble, have you?" That was a loaded question. Had she ever? Definitely. Had she recently? No. She'd actually been on her best behaviour after an infraction. However smart-mouthed she was, she loved her job.

"Not recently sir, it's not my fault we're being call to the principal's office." It slipped out before she stop it. This was probably why they were being dragged here after all. She had a chronic inability to control her mouth. It was a problem that she was working on, maybe she wasn't working on it fast enough.

Ryan rolled his eyes, continuing on. "No need to be a smartass." He muttered, and before she got the chance to ask him if they'd ever met before they were at the door for the Director and she remembered that she needed to try and stay quiet here. This wasn't the place for smart answers, however much she wanted to give them.

"Agent Ryan, Agent Brody, come in." Was said as the door opened barely a second after Ryan had knocked. Brody stepped in and blinked a few times. Other than the director there was one older man in the room. She'd seen him walking around, but she'd never gotten his name.

"Thank you sir." Ryan said as he moved more into the room, slowly dragging Brody with him. She just didn't want to be disrespectful and make things worse.

"You're here because we have an assignment for Brody." The director addressed Ryan, but nodded to her when he said her name. She was surprised the director even knew she existed. She was practically a probie, the most junior of field agents.

"Sir?" Ryan seemed as confused about that as Brody. Assignments that required a meeting with the director generally went to more senior agents, Brody was still a probie in comparison to many of the better agents in NCIS, many of whom would be better for this mission, she was sure.

"She'll return to your team, or to another, when she's done. The mission she is going to be on is classified." That seemed to make Ryan settle a little, he knew he likely wasn't out of an agent for good. The problem was that she wasn't sure what that was going to mean for her. "Do you have a problem with that, Agent Brody?"

"No sir, I just have one question." Her voice was a little squeaky, so she coughed. She hoped that that would help her sound more like an adult and an agent than a worry child.

"Speak." The director said eventually, watching her. She wanted to look around the room and figure out something else she could draw attention to.

She swallowed and looked between all those in the room. There was something about it that was confusing her, and likely would even when she knew. "Why me, sir?" She tried to sound deferential.

"We're lead to believe you speak fluent Russian." The older agent spoke. She looked between the three agents in the room and wondered what on Earth that had to do with her being sent on a mission. She guessed that she'd learn eventually.

"Yes sir." She just ended up nodding. Not really sure how else to reply really. Given that all she could do was confirm and deny, and denying it would be lying. That would be a bad start.

"Agent Ryan, you're dismissed. Agent Gibbs, come see if she's as good as her file says she is." The older agent stepped forward, asking her questions in Russian. As she remembered more what she and Emily had learned on Rosetta Stone a few years earlier, she found it came flooding back. She could answer all the questions with ease, and she was glad of the further lessons they'd taken. Sure they had never studied in Russia after all, but they had learnt something valuable.

"She's good." He smiled, stepping back and away from her. She was really glad that she'd passed the test of her knowledge. That still didn't really fill in why she was the one they had come to, but it said a lot. Something needed her knowledge of Russian.

"What you need?" The director asked, addressing Gibbs and completely ignoring Brody. The question made her realise that she'd been right. She was needed for her odd decision to learn Russian.

"I think so." Gibbs replied nodding, and that was the last instance of being spoken about and not too that Brody could take. She knew that speaking was not what she was suppose to do, but she really wanted to know what was going on.

"Now can I know what the mission is?" She tried to sound polite, she tried to keep her tone level, it didn't really work. They both turned and looked at her, and clearly decided that now it really was time to let her in.

Gibbs was the one who spoke first, looking at her seriously. It was obvious he was trying to gauge her reaction. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but what she got wasn't that. "We're going to the UK, undercover, to pose as a nightclub owner and his wife. We're attempting to break the UK market, and at the same time we're going to be infiltrating a smuggling ring." That sounded like the type of mission she'd done before, though they had only been short term. The question that appeared first was, why was her Russian needed if they were going to the UK.

"Why the UK sir?" There would, no doubt, be an interesting reason. She'd never been to the UK before, and at least they were generally an English speaking country.

"Our gang leader, Lugovich Kovtun, is a high roller in the city of Manchester." The director handed her a city map and nodded at it. "He owns a local soccer team and several restaurants in the city and a few nearby ones. You'd be moving in the same circles." She looked at the map and spotted the landmarks that were highlighted. Bury football club, a few buildings she didn't recognise.

"And being Russian should get their attention." She followed the logic of what he was saying. Russia was a big country, and add the former soviet countries into consideration they could live and operate anywhere in half the continent. It was a good cover.

"You're from the outer cities of Russian, where Kovtun has no influence, so there is little chance he could corroborate there. It's safe." Nothing was truly safe in undercover assignments, she knew that much. If they had managed to make it the safest it could be there was still going to be a risk, but she could accept that.

"As safe as undercover work can be." She voiced her thought a moment later, deciding it wouldn't be impertinent. This was a weird situation.

"We're doing it with the co-operation of the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire police forces, and the NCIS regional unit in London." The director was clearly realising that she was beginning to become overloaded with information, and she was. "You'll be given full information tomorrow at your briefing." He said, nodding at her.

"It was good to meet you, Agent Brody." Gibbs spoke, holding his hand out before she could turn away. She shook his hand firmly then thought what else she should do, then realised there was nothing else to do.

"And you, Agent Gibbs." She knew when she'd been dismissed, and more to the point she knew when a swift getaway was necessary. It seemed like she'd passed the first test, and maybe that had been the hard part. At least she knew what she was going to be doing now. Sure, she wasn't sure how she felt about it given she was still pretty new at all that. She guessed that it meant she would just have to follow Gibbs' lead.


	2. Flying

Brody wasn't sure at what point in the layover she'd begun pacing, but all of a sudden she'd looked up and it was an hour after the last time she remembered looking up, she was tired and there were a couple of dozen more people milling about. She looked round and realised that she'd somehow managed to stop next to where Gibbs was still sitting reading a newspaper. He just turned a page as she came to a stop and looked up at her out of the corner of his eye and smirking slightly. "Are you done pacing there?" He asked, clearly remembering that they needed to have switched to Russian now.

"No. I hate flying." She mumbled, debating starting up again, but realising that she was more tired than she probably should have been, and her feet were sore. She sat down next to him and wrapped her jacket a little tighter around her. She was used to cold weather, but she'd once decided that Moscow was too cold. Now she was going to be spending an extended amount of time in a city on the same latitude as Moscow, though a little closer to the North Atlantic current. "And I hate being cold."

"What does that have to do with pacing?" He asked turning his head to her, and she had to think of the answer to that for herself. It had just always been a part of her pre-flight routine. At least she was better than Emily. She would fly. Emily would never leave the US, as she refused to even consider flying, and instead drove everywhere.

"It takes my mind off the flying." There was really only that reason she could think of for why she always paced. She didn't think about the flying, or really anything much while she was walking backward and forward. She tried to place her feet on the same exact places with every footstep.

"You always hated flying?" He asked, actually looking as though he was interested in that little detail of her life. She wondered how, given that even to her it wasn't the most interesting part of her life. The minutiae of her psyche was actually something she liked to try and _not_ think about.

"As long as I can remember." She looked around and dropped her voice, leaning close to him and whispering directly into his ear. Her next point was something she was taking a gamble on saying, but she was willing to roll the dice this early in the mission. "There is a reason _naval_ is in my job title." She had managed to stop herself talking about Emily's fear. Tatyana was not a twin, or a sister at all. So that would have immediately required a change to her story. She caught herself though, and she was a little proud of herself.

He chuckled a little as he sat back, and she realised that he had been interested, but she still may have over-shared a little. "Well, that makes sense." He commented, and went back to reading his paper again. She stayed sat down for a few minutes longer then shook her head and stood up again.

"Can I go back to pacing now?" She was being sarcastic, but she did suddenly have the urge to start moving again. Apparently Gibbs could tell that, and that made it much simpler for him to pull her back down into the chair she'd just vacated and get her to sit again.

"Do we need to drug you?" He asked a few minutes later as she stood up again, and this time he clearly decided that, if she wasn't going to sit down, he was going to stand up with her. She shook her head and frowned a little more, knowing they were among the first to go on, being in first class, she was sure they'd board soon.

"I don't need to be drugged." She looked in the direction of the gate and glared a little, happy at least that there was some activity there, meaning there was a very good chance that they would get to board soon. "I just need to get on the plane so I can sleep until we land." She would probably easily sleep the entire four hour flight between here and there. At least when they landed she would be in their host city, and she likely wouldn't be getting on another plane until they came home.

"We're on the last leg now." Gibbs clearly realised that she needed a little bit of reassuring, and started walking her a little closer to the gate. Clearly trying to remind her that there was a lot for her to be doing too.

"I know that. We've been travelling an entire day." That was actually an understatement. By this point they'd been travelling for close to 30 hours, and other than a brief nap almost a full 24 hours ago, she hadn't been able to sleep. She was too light a sleeper for sleeping on planes unless she was exhausted. She was hitting the 'exhausted' level now.

"Are you are always this annoying?" He asked, seemingly losing a little bit of patience. Maybe he wasn't completely unaffected by tiredness and jetlag. She couldn't imagine him losing his temper in any other situation. She didn't really know him that well yet though, so it was a pure guess.

"When travelling, yes." She shot back immediately. She didn't like that he was being snappy, even though she was snappy first. They were apparently jointly in contention for 'worst travelling companions' and that was probably not a great thing.

He sighed and shook his head. Right now she wasn't sure if she was being like this because she was more in touch with herself and her level of annoyance, or if she was trying to be an asshole. Either way it seemed he'd made a decision of how he would deal with it on the return to the US. "I'm going to drug you on the return journey."

"Try it and I'll bite your fingers." She threatened, and she meant it. She didn't like the idea of having to take drugs for anything that wasn't a required medical condition. She'd rather piss off her travelling companions than take drugs. Hopefully by the time they were flying back, they could get an 8-hour direct flight rather than bouncing all over the planet to try and cover their tracks.

"I'd like to see you try." He replied, and this time he seemed a little more amused than she would have expected. Maybe it was the fact he'd just been un-ironically threatened with being bitten that had amused him, or maybe it was the simple act that she was already grumpy about something that would happen in the future. The truth was, he should push her on that point. She had no problem biting people.

"Don't challenge me to that." She cautioned, deciding that she might as well be honest about the fact that she would see the challenge as something that she'd have to complete as a matter of honour. She really didn't want to think about doing it, but she'd probably not even pause if she was pushed to it.

"Oh really, why not?" Gibbs' face was still mostly just entertained. That was annoying her additionally on top of everything else now, and she was glad that within a few hours they'd be in their temporary home, and she could sleep properly and likely be less annoyed by everything when she was. For now though, she would tell him why he shouldn't push her on the idea of biting him.

"Because I might attempt it." She smiled, and all of a sudden there was a call for them to move over toward the gate in preparation for going aboard. Gibbs clearly saw this as a relief, or respite, and smirked a little again.

"We're boarding now." He pointed out sarcastically, and she decided that grabbing the bag and walking to the gate would be better than kicking him, which had been her immediate impulse. After they had their boarding passes and passports checked, again, they were allowed through to walk up to the cabin alone.

"Have you ever been there?" She asked thinking a little about where they were going. She'd spent some time before they'd left searching the internet for information on the city they were going to and its surrounding area. She knew a lot about it, and the history, but that wasn't really the same as having been there.

"Manchester?" He asked, clearly just clarifying what she meant. She nodded and looked over her shoulder a second to look at him as they waited to be allowed through the bulkhead door into the cabin. "No. Never. You?"

"I've never been to the UK." She smiled at the stewardess who held her arm out for them to go through, and she walked between the seats thinking about the fact that this was how she ended up going somewhere she'd wondered about for as long as she could remember. "Wanted to go though."

"Well, now you got your chance." He squeezed her arm as they got to the first class cabin and she put the bag down. She was happy about the fact that she could at least sit down now, and get herself comfortable. Soon enough she would indeed have her chance.

"Yeah, I'll have to try and explore as best I can." She smiled a little at that thought. She knew there was a lot around Manchester that she could visit and look at. Brody wasn't entirely sure she was willing to attempt to drive there though, she couldn't imagine that driving on the other side of the road would be all that easy, and she wasn't willing to risk it.

"Don't go too far afield." Gibbs warned, and it took her a moment to refocus on what they were talking about. Once she remembered, that seemed like an obvious point. She wasn't going to start running all around the country as if she was on vacation, but a visit to one of the neighbouring cities surely wouldn't have been a problem.

So she rolled her eyes just a little at him and his mild protectionism. She wasn't going to just run away, and she also wasn't completely stupid. "I wouldn't." She managed to get out before she yawned widely. She was fairly sure she could fall asleep before they even took off at this rate.

"Good. Now, will you be OK?" He was looking at her seriously, and she was fairly certain that he was checking that she wasn't going to fall immediately to sleep. She'd still need to get comfortable and have something to eat, but that was barely anything important, and she could do without the food.

"Yeah, I'll just sleep." She yawned again, and covered her mouth with the back of her hand. That was going to be something fun. Remembering that they were in public as she woke up. She hoped her brain was on the ball then.

"I'll wake you up when we're coming in to land." He grinned at her, and she was glad that they had both appeared to have worked off the grumpiness over the layover, now she was just tired, and she was sure he could do something while they flew on the last bit of this journey.

"Thanks" She smiled a little and leant over to kiss his cheek. Now that they had left they were definitely, technically, undercover. They needed to start selling the relationship immediately, as for gangs like this there was certainly a chance they were already being watched. At least it meant that they would be beginning soon. The faster they began the faster they'd be able to get home again.


	3. Arrival

Walking out of the airport the first thing Brody noticed was that it was as cold here as it had been in DC, but she wasn't sure if that was a good thing. There was someone there with their undercover name on a card, and she let Gibbs guide her over to him. She was sure that that was the best plan, as they were to be treated like someone who had the money to book this kind of service. She needed to get that into her head. "Welcome to Manchester. Ma'am, may I take your bag?" The driver asked her, reaching for the handle of her suitcase.

"Thank you." She smiled and stepped back up beside Gibbs and smiled at him a little. She was too tired to think logically right now, but clearly Gibbs was still on his game. That was probably the best thing right now.

"You are the driver?" He asked, and she mentally kicked herself. She really should have asked that first, rather than just allowing him to take her bag. At least someone was still thinking sensibly. She really shouldn't be allowed to travel for that long. She was never going to do that again.

"Yes sir." The driver nodded with a small smile. She was at least not stupid, or tired, enough to have randomly followed this man before she'd checked who he was. At least she didn't think she was. It was really all up in the air right now.

"You didn't meet the drivers?" She asked in Russian, simultaneously asking a question as Brody the agent and Tatyana the wife. She'd just assumed that Gibbs would have known who they were meeting here. Maybe that wasn't the most normal thing to have assumed, but she'd never worked on a long term undercover op before.

"It wasn't important, they came recommended." He replied, which she took to mean that they were assigned by the police here. Meaning that they could be trusted, she hoped. Given the last briefing she'd gotten, the police here wanted Kovtun as much as NCIS did.

"You and your contacts." She chuckled a little. Keeping it light for the moment. There was no point complaining at the lack of knowledge right now. It couldn't be changed, and she wasn't really in the mood to hold her tongue, even when she knew she had to.

"Let's get to our new home." He suggested, opening the car door for her. She got in and looked at him as he walked around to the other side and climbed in beside her. She watched him for a second and thought up something she could say to him.

"Yes lets, before I kill you." She teased a little. That had already become part of their dynamic here. She wasn't quite annoyed enough to actually murder him, though it was a close run thing right now. As it was, she thought this was the perfect moment to keep it up. "We should speak English, I need to practice."

"Your English is already very good." The driver replied with a little smirk. They all went quiet for a few minutes. She felt Gibbs' hand on hers and she had to fight the urge to pull her hand away. It would become natural, she was sure of that. She just wasn't quite there yet.

"This is the guy from the local force, right?" She asked again in Russian, completely forgetting her own suggestion a few minutes earlier. It was easier, right now, for her to ask private things in Russian rather than try and covertly ask them in English. Her Russian was far from perfect, but she'd had to have another crash course, and she was certain she could pass as a naturalised speaker.

As all that went through her head, clearly Gibbs was trying to look at the window and decide what was going on out there. "Yes, we'll know more when we're secure." He was still looking out when he answered.

"Fine." She grumbled, not even entirely sure why she was grumpy right now. Obviously she was more tired than she was letting on. Which actually probably wasn't that surprising given her normal words when she was travelling. They weren't at the apartment yet, therefore this still counted as travelling.

"This doesn't have to be as hard as you're making it." He commented quietly leaning over to her, and she looked back at him a moment later frowning. The point was that he was right, it didn't. Probably in a few hours she'd be able to face it all less annoyed.

"I'm just... tired." She shook her head, feeling a little bad for being grumpy, but only a little bad. She felt like she had a very good reason for not being in the best of moods. She didn't know how he wasn't showing any problems with it at all. How did he survive so many flights without wanting to murder everyone. "We have been travelling for almost 36 hours."

"Our meeting isn't until tomorrow morning, we can look around the apartment when we get there, then sleep." Clearly he knew how to cheer her up. It was at that moment she looked at their hands and felt another shiver of weirdness going through her. It just didn't seem all that natural yet.

"Do you not feel weird about this?" She asked quietly. Just wondering if he got the same nerves she had. She thought they were nerves at least. Long term assignments weren't really something she had done before.

"It is what it is." There was a finality to that comment that she couldn't really argue with. She wanted to, but she couldn't. They couldn't change this now, and she had agreed to play her part in this. It wasn't easy, but it was not something they could change now.

"That's true." Was the only thing Brody could say in the end. So she started looking out of the window. It was beautiful out there, even though it was overcast.

"I want to sleep." She complained loudly in English. She was just tired, grumpy and beginning to feel a little sick. More than 24 hours of only airport food was beginning to take its toll on her stomach.

"We're almost there ma'am." The driver said, and she went back to looking out the window. She was just enjoying watching the buildings going past. She knew there was a lot of construction going on, but no research could have truly prepared her for how beautiful this city was in person. After another ten minutes they came to a stop and she looked out of the window before the driver spoke. "Here we are. There is someone up there waiting for you." That sounded ominous, it probably wasn't meant to, it just did.

"Thank you, we'll take our own bags." Gibbs answered first then looked at her and squeezed the hand he'd held since the airport. She knew that it all mattered for getting them into character and prepared, but it still felt a little strange. She just shrugged it off and followed him up the stairs.

The first striking thing that hit her about the apartment was the amount of light that was coming through the windows. The apartment as far as she could see was huge, and open plan. Two specific seating areas, then the dining space and kitchen. It was pretty breathtaking, especially when she looked out over the city from the windows. "Welcome to Manchester, Agents." A voice said, and she ended up jumping, apparently she'd been easily distracted. She was going to blame sleep deprivation.

"We're secure in here?" Gibbs asked, and that was another good first question. The woman who had spoken was probably around Gibbs' age, with light blonde hair that was heading toward grey. She looked like she knew what she was doing though, and that was something.

"Yes, for now. I'm DI Blackley, your main GMP contact here." She stepped forward and shook both their hands. Brody wasn't really sure how she felt about this, purely because she'd assumed their primary contact would still be NCIS, having to trust someone else was going to be strange. "We'll give you a full review in the morning, but for right now we'll let you get used to your place." She motioned around with a smiled, and for an instant she wanted to ask how this had come to be theirs, but then decided that she didn't really care that much. "I already spoke to the NCIS office in London, I'll be in constant contact with them, and I'll have to speak to you both at least once a day."

"That's it?" She asked, a little surprised that that was all they were being told right now. She had expected to get more than that straight away, and she wasn't really entirely sure why.

"That's all we'll go into. Enjoy your time in Manchester." Blackley smiled as if she was making a little joke. Something that Brody wasn't really in the mood for. Purely because she was so tired. Though she was sure they could still enjoy their time here, but February at this latitude was never something she'd planned on. It was why she hadn't gone to Moscow in the end.

"Can I sleep now?" She asked instead of commenting on the joke. It was easier if she spoke to Gibbs than to anyone else. He wouldn't get as offended by her terrible mood as others would. Besides, he needed to get used to it, they were going to be living together for a while, and she was often in this type of mood.

"She's not a good travel companion." Gibbs said to Blackley in a conspiratorial manner, and she just glared at him for a few seconds. She knew that was true, but she still wasn't really in the mood for someone to apologise for her.

"You're a pain in the ass." She commented looking at him and frowning. He would of course still be as calm and professional as always, even after 36 hours of straight travelling. She was looking forward to actually lying down in a bed. Right now she didn't even care that it was going to be one she shared.

"Sounds like you've both settled into these roles." Blackley commented and laughed as the turned to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow." She told them both then walked to the entrance. Brody both wanted to look at the city and fall asleep.

"Now can I go to sleep?" She asked almost as soon as the door was shut. Gibbs rolled his eyes in her direction, and she couldn't help but laugh a little. She had clearly annoyed him a fair amount over the last couple of days. She felt like that was just preparing him for the next few months.

"Sure. I'll be through after I've looked around." Clearly he was more awake than she was, either that or he wanted to respect her privacy. It could be a touch of both. There weren't really all that many borders in this kind of situation, and they were going to get to know more about each other than maybe they had expected.

"Believe me, once I'm asleep I won't care." She tended to be a very heavy sleeper, and she also barely moved once she was asleep, so when he decided to go to bed didn't really matter to her. As long as they both got plenty of sleep that was enough.

Just before she turned away Gibbs' smirk managed to grab her attention. She knew he was going to say something, but whatever it was he seemed to think twice about it and instead said something a little more neutral. "Goodnight Yana."

"Yana?" She asked. Brody could kind of understand that they were going to need things like that for each other, but she still wasn't sure how she felt about that. It seemed like such a random nickname. Though there weren't that many nicknames that you could make from Tatyana.

"We're gonna need nicknames or pet names." He confirmed her suspicion that she was going to need to think up something for him, but she wasn't sure how she felt about that right now. Mostly she was still stuck on calling him an ass.

"I guess 'asshole' is inappropriate?" She asked with a smirk, especially when he glared at her. She thought it was hilarious, and she really did think that 'asshole' was becoming her special nickname for him. She thought seriously for a moment then just picked the easiest thing. "Sander then. Goodnight." She smiled and looked around, finding the way up to the bedroom. She was going to go shopping soon to buy some new clothes for them both, but right now she was happy to wear her own pyjamas and just get some sleep. At least they were here, and it seemed like a lovely city. She could probably appreciate it more when she wasn't completely sleep deprived. She'd look again in the morning.

"This is the city?"

"Yes ma'am. Your apartment is in the city centre,"

"That's a good thing, you'll be right near the stores."

"You say that like all I do is shop."

"If the sock fits."

"I think you mean shoe, sir."

"Shoe, there. If the shoe fits Yana." She blew a raspberry in his direction and went back to looking out the window. "That was uncalled for."

"Asshole."


	4. Morning in Manchester

A full night's sleep seemed like it had been a salve for her soul, and she awoke feeling completely well rested and far happier about being on this damned assignment than she had been before. She still hated travelling, but she wasn't going to be faced with airports or airplanes for several weeks now, and she didn't need to worry about that. So she could just live with feeling better, and happier. She was sure that Gibbs would be relieved to know that she wasn't going to be biting his head off all day. Eventually she got out of bed and padded barefoot downstairs to the kitchen.

"You feeling better today?" Was the first question that was asked as she made a bowl of cereal, glad that at least it seemed that Cheerios were an international staple. It meant she wasn't going to have to get used to entirely new food. Finding good places to eat herself was going to be hard. As for how she was feeling, the Cheerios had definitely helped.

"I'm not as homicidal, if that's what you're meaning?" She smiled looking over at him from the kitchen counter where she'd sat down. She could easily be brought back up to homicidal too. She was almost sure that he would purposefully try to push her while they had nothing else to do.

"I'm glad." He smiled at her, and handed her the milk again. Somehow he'd known she was going to have a second bowl. That was a sign they were working well. "And that was definitely a part of it." She laughed, realising that her homicidal feeling was something he'd actually been thinking about. She didn't feel the need to keep talking, and just went on with eating.

"What time are we supposed to be being briefed?" She asked eventually when she realised that she had no idea the time, or anything about what they were meant to be doing today. She could go exploring if she had the time. Looking around the city a little was a good idea, so they could already have thoughts of places to go if they wanted to go out after the briefing.

"1pm." Gibbs replied, and she thought about that, clearly whoever had plotted this out had thought very seriously about whether they'd be awake earlier after flying. Then again she was saying that, and she didn't really know what time it was, or how long she'd been asleep for.

"What time is it?" She looked around the entire apartment to see if she could see a clock, but realised that there wasn't a single one. She was going to have to remedy that. There was almost certainly a British equivalent to Nordstroms somewhere. She could probably find it in the city centre in the coming days.

"A little after 11." He walked around her to the counter and turned a kettle on. She watched him for a second, doing some quick maths. He didn't really seem to care that she hadn't said anything more, but she was sure that that was because he was focused on what he was doing. "Coffee?"

"Yeah, thanks." She carried on counting in her mind Trying to figure out exactly how long she'd slept for straight. She knew she'd slept about 17 hours in the last 2 days, but she'd barely slept while flying. "I slept, what... 13 hours?"

"Nearly 14, yes." He smiled, and she suddenly wondered if he'd even slept at all. She probably wouldn't have noticed anyway. Once she was asleep, she was asleep, nothing woke her up easily. "It's the jetlag." He tried to excuse, and she shook her head softly.

"It's not really, I'm just that type of sleeper." She wasn't going to just blame the jetlag when he was going to have to get used to that. "I don't even know what timezone I'd be jetlagged for?" That was surely a valid point too. How was she supposed to blame jetlag when she'd been in a half dozen time zones in the last couple of days.

Gibbs looked at her slightly confused too. Maybe he hadn't thought of that too. As she watched him she sae the gear turning in his mind too. Was he jetlagged too, as that would answer a lot of the questions as to why he was willing to blame that. She tried to avoid blaming jetlag when she travelled, which was probably the source of her time zone confusion. "All of them?" Gibbs said seriously, laughing as he said it. He clearly thought it was so extremely funny.

"I suppose that is accurate." She gave in, deciding that it was going to be better to just let that go out. She just needed to get over the hump and accept that Gibbs was probably right in this case and she just didn't want to accept it.

"Suppose?" Gibbs asked pointedly. It was obvious that he knew exactly what he was talking about. She guessed in this line of work, he'd done plenty of his own last minute flights and moves to new cities in strange settings. It was still new to her, and she hated jetlag.

"OK it's completely accurate." She agreed after a little while. She was too tired and grouchy to answer any other way. Maybe she didn't know which time zone she was homesick for, but she knew where she was homesick for. She missed being at home, with Emily.

"Missing home?" Gibbs asked, apparently even better at reading Merri's moods than she'd anticipated. She'd been certain that he'd learn them eventually, but she'd not been certain about what she should tell him when it came to her real life. Her life outside of this.

"Not really yet. Ask me that again in a week. I'm missing my sister more than anything. She and I are pretty close." That was an understatement. She and Emily still told each other everything, despite being on opposite sides of the country. They called each other every night and just talk like that had since middle school.

"Older or younger?" That was always an interesting question, and she had never figured out how to answer it properly. She always ended up confusing whoever she was speaking to. They didn't immediately click to the fact that you could be barely older, or barely younger, or that being a twin would affect that.

"Younger, barely." She smiled, remembering all the time she'd teased Emily about that. She had hated whenever that question had come up. Mostly because she knew that Merri wasn't going to let it go that she was just a little older. "We're twins. I was 16 minutes earlier."

"Interesting." He said, and it was obvious by a look that he actually was interested in that part of her life. That was unusual for Merri. Normally people were fed up of her talking about Emily, so she'd stopped by now.

"I thought you'd read my file?" She asked. She knew the fact she was a twin was mentioned, somewhere, in her personnel file. She knew this because whenever someone met her, they asked what it was like to have a twin.

Gibbs shook his head, and she didn't know why she was so surprised about that. It just didn't necessarily seem like his type of style. She would have guessed that he was the type to look over any file put in front of him. "Nope, I prefer getting to know my agents in person."

"Alright. I'm going to find the closest convenience store and buy the motherload of coke." She really needed coke now. It was almost her lifeblood, and while she knew that wasn't healthy, it was also best for her.

"It's on Deansgate, at the corner of Quay street." He pointed in the direction of the proffered store. She knew that if he knew that he'd probably know where the first decent coffee shop was, but she sort of wanted to find that out on her own.

"I'm not going to ask how you already knew that." She didn't want to know really. It just wasn't worth it, and she wasn't actually all that interested. She knew him though, which meant she was going to find out anyway.

"I have a map." Maybe this was his way of breaking in a new partner. It had been two days and she was already managing to pick up on some of these little things. She just needed to be left alone to do some things and he hadn't figured that out yet. "I can make you want to kill me even when we're not flying."

"Shut up, asshole." Was the only retort she felt was strong enough for him right then. She would just threaten death on him, and she would find a way to follow through on those threats, she was sure of that.

"Thank you Tatyana." She just decided that rising above it was for the best, so she went and got dressed, putting on the warmest clothes she could find among the things she'd packed and the things that were already provided here for them. Despite being brought up in Michigan, she had never been a fan of cold weather. She had always been the summer baby, Emily had been the one who liked the cold.

The city was beautiful in it's winter glory. She did love being able to look out at the frost-tipped mountains that defined the north of the city, while the flatter, and less frosty south of the city seemed to be warm and welcoming. She wasn't even going far from the apartment, but she was already enjoying the city. If they were able to stay after the case she might stay to be a tourist for a while. Depending on how long the assignment lasted.

She quickly found the store that Gibbs had spoken of, and when she got there she used the little money she still had in her wallet to buy the groceries she wanted. Mostly soda and chocolate. It was easy to see what her priority was. She probably could get a lot more than that, but her brain wasn't working, and she wasn't a cook. She suddenly was overcome with a desperate hope that Gibbs could cook, otherwise she'd need to find a gym. Once she was stocked up she started the slow walk back toward the apartment, thinking about maybe having a bath.

"Oh, you're early." Were the first words out of her mouth as she made it to the main roo of the apartment and saw that DI Blackley and the officer she seem to bring with her everywhere were sat on the sofa too..

"We waited for you before starting, are you ready?" Blackley was the one who spoke, but she knew it was Gibbs eyes that followed her across the room. She didn't need to look at them to know that.

"Can I put all this soda in the kitchen first?" She asked sarcastically. Brody would do that whether she was told she could or not. half of them, at least, needed to go in the fridge. The rest she could deal with at another time.

"Of course." Blackley said, the first to motion toward the kitchen and for her to do whatever she needed to do. She didn't entirely know what she'd been expecting, but somehow the DI wasn't exactly what she'd expected for a UK cop.

"Need a hand?" Gibbs asked, look a little concerned that she was cutting the blood supply off to her fingers. Maybe she was, but she'd made the walk from the store to the apartment. That was enough right now. She could put it all away.

"No. I'm fine." She snapped holding the bags closer to her. She just wanted to do it alone, to be left alone for a little longer. She hadn't realised that she had valued the time away from someone who she was having to spend almost every second of a day with.

"OK." He held his hand up and backed off with that same annoying smirk that he wore when he knew he'd managed to wind her up. He was only trying to be helpful, and she knew that, but it wasn't actually helpful. She just hated being coddled, and she was going to be spending much of the next few months being coddled and controlled. She'd signed up for it, but that didn't make it any easier to follow.


	5. Millionaire's Club

Brody was quite fed up, already. She didn't like wearing dresses like this, and she didn't like acting like this. It was the main reason that she'd shied away from the lifestyle her parents had lead. It just wasn't her. Unfortunately, combined with all the other things she was bringing to NCIS, she was absolutely the best choice for this. Blending in with the culture that they were entering was so much easier for her than it would be for many others. The issue right now, however, was getting comfortable in high-class places like this. It definitely lived up to the name 'Millionaires Club'. She got the feeling it was also a self fulfilling name too, whoever owned this place probably earned a million in a night. "Are you sure this is where we're meant to be going?" She asked Gibbs, making sure she stuck to Russian, mostly because any English speakers around wouldn't know what they were saying.

"This is the club." He replied, clearly making it obvious that he checked around. She bounced a little on the balls of her feet, and he put his hands on her shoulders. Maybe it was obvious that she was nervous. This was their first time properly in public together, and she'd only just gotten over the awful jetlag in the last few hours. "Ana, calm down." He said eventually, stopping pressing down on her shoulders, she just had to think of a way to articulate that.

"I don't do well when I'm not sure where I'm going." She had never been very good at that. At home or, seemingly, here. She was a little bit of a control freak, and she could admit that to herself. Knowing everything about any situation she could end up in was the most important thing to her sometimes, and this was so far out of that that she couldn't really explain it. All she knew for certain was that she was uncomfortable.

"I should have known." He chuckled after a few seconds, still ascending in the elevator. It was a slow, calm climb, and something that gave her time to calm a little more. He clearly thought this was hilarious, and she understood why. She got antsy like this nearly all the time, and anyone who had spent five minutes with her knew that.

"You should have, you've flown with me." She commented quietly, and all she could really remember was that he had been annoyed by her when they flew too. Her nervousness nearly always manifested the same way, no matter what the situation was. She thought it was hilarious, she'd never met anyone else who did.

"And it's something I would rather not repeat." The knowing smile told her that he was teasing, and after a minute she burst out laughing, causing him to start chuckling too. Maybe he was better at breaking her tension than she'd just been giving him credit for. Someone needed to be good at it, and it certainly wasn't her.

"Shut up." She laughed after a few seconds, the elevator coming to a halt and the doors opening on to another room, it was the size of a ballroom, with ornate light fixtures and bannisters all around. The booths all around the room seemed to either be filled or reserved, and it seemed everyone knew everyone else, and she was again beginning to feel a little out of her depth. She looked up to Gibbs and saw him still smirking, which made her laugh again.

"Oh but I don't want to." He commented as they walked over toward the bar. He'd clearly decided that winding her up, right now, was exactly what they both needed. It was definitely giving her something else to think about, while it was giving him a way to stop her annoying him. Or that would have been her thought about it anyway. So she decided it was time to start annoying him back.

"I'll poke you." She commented, shaking her head. Brody was really good at threatening him with things like that, along with everything else. He really thought that it was hilarious when she did things like that, she'd figured that out in the last few days.

Gibbs was clearly feeling even more like annoying the hell out of her, but it was actually working. She was beginning to feel a little less nervous, and a lot less stressed about all of this. As she watched him, Gibbs began to smirk wider. "I'm sure you will poke me."

"You're an asshole." She burst out laughing again, letting him help her onto a stool at the bar. She just shook her head and laughed as he smirked to her. They were both sitting talking, and trying to look as innocent as she possibly could.

"I'm sure I am." He chuckled, poking her side lightly. It was really obvious, she thought, that they were just laughing about something that didn't matter, but maybe to others it wasn't. Or maybe she needed to stop overthinking everything.

"I hate you." She continued shaking her head, laughing loudly. Her sides were actually beginning to hurt a little, and that was putting her even more at ease. Nobody seemed to be acting as though they didn't belong there, and that was helping her calm too.

"You two are cute, what can I get you?" The woman behind the bar asked, smiling between the two of them. Brody just ordered a bottle of wine, not really caring whether or not Gibbs liked that particular type, it was something she liked.

"We're cute, apparently." Gibbs commented almost as soon as she turned away to find the bottle of wine. She suddenly wanted to throw something at him, but she knew that probably wasn't going to be the best idea. So instead she just poked him hard in the stomach and laughed again as he grabbed her hand to stop her doing it again.

"Shut up." She laughed again, sliding off the stool as someone took their drink and started toward a booth along the back wall. It was the perfect place, as it would give them time to look around and study the area, and also the people who were around.

"You're telling me to shut up a lot today." He chuckled as they walked over to the booth with 'their' name on it. She knew that for the time being she was Tatyana Volkov, but it still didn't feel like it actually should be her name. It definitely wasn't natural for her. Though that would come in time.

"Get in the booth." She poked him in the side then laughed as she slid in too. The truth was that she really liked that they were laughing and joking. It was what was important right now, getting comfortable, with him alongside with the whole situation. It was helping.

"Yes ma'am." Gibbs replied and laughed, again covering his side where she'd just poked him. She was certain that she could continue poking him, continue making sure that she was able to bug him as simply as she could. It was definitely exactly what was needed right now.

"You must be Aleksander Volkov, right?" A young man said, walking up to the table. Brody would have guessed that he was a little younger than she was, maybe by a year or so. It wasn't by much, and it certainly was making the look he was giving her a little more awkward. She looked to Gibbs and shook her head lightly as the man introduced himself. "Daniel Netrenko, we spoke on the phone."

"Yes, I am." Gibbs stood up, and his whole attitude changed almost immediately. It became a little more protective, and a little less jokey. She knew it fit exactly the character he was playing, and the one she should be too. She wasn't a federal agent, here. She was a young Russian woman, one who was not particularly trained in anything. That thought made her feel a little more exposed than she had been before. As if sensing that, Gibbs reached down and took her hand and nodded to her. "My wife, Tatyana."

Daniel looked between them then smiled. Gibbs looked at her for a moment, but it was clear that they were both thinking the same thing. Why was he there at that moment. "I know of some people who you should meet. They are Russian too." She looked around suddenly, and saw one of the men in her briefing pictures. She was good with faces, that was the only way she could survive this.

"Great." Gibbs said, clearly not seeing what she did, as Daniel turned she nodded over her shoulder. She wondered if it didn't matter in the end. This could be just the start to their case they needed. Watching him, however, Gibbs didn't seem at all surprised about the unexpected visitor, and suddenly she wondered if he was that unexpected after all.

"That happened quicker than expected." She commented, and Gibbs just squeezed her hand, sitting down again. Brody moved to the end of the booth like it seemed that Gibbs really wanted to push her too. Maybe he felt that was a way to keep her safer too.

"This is what you can do when you know what you're doing." Gibbs said really casually. She glared at him for a few seconds, mostly to try and figure out exactly what he was thinking about. He had clearly, somehow, orchestrated this. It was something that she now needed to learn how to do.

"Shut up." She commented again after a few seconds. It seemed easier to tell him to shut up now, and ask him when they were in a private, secure place to ask about what he'd done to arrange all of this.

"Behave." Gibbs warned her, and she just couldn't stop laughing. Maybe this wasn't the best time for her to get a fit of the giggles, but it was definitely a time that she would get them. She had to try and do something to stop it, but her mind just wasn't going to do it, no matter how hard she tried.

"Do I really have to?" She asked with a smirk once she stopped giggling, then at the look Gibbs turned and gave her she burst out giggling again. It really wasn't going to work if she laughed whenever she saw Gibbs' face. It made it much more difficult to stop laughing when he was looking at her as though she was nuts.

"Yes, yes you do." Gibbs eventually said, still looking at her as though she was losing it. That made her laugh even harder, but she managed to calm herself a little when she saw people coming toward the table. She looked up and saw Kovtun, and carried on giggling for a few seconds, and then brought herself under control. Daniel stopped right beside their table, and looked down at the two of them.

"Aleksander, this is Lugo and his girlfriend Darya." Daniel introduced, once again ignoring the fact that Brody existed. It seemed like Daniel either didn't like her, or had a bit of a crush on her. Either way it was going to be awkward for her if he continued to treat her like this.

"Hello, my wife Tatyana." Gibbs clearly noticed that Daniel wasn't introducing her, and he just motioned toward her. As it was, it didn't actually matter all that much about what was happening with Daniel, providing both she and Gibbs made the contacts with Kovtun and his girlfriend that they needed for this assignment. So she needed to play along too.

"Hi." She ended up saying, holding her hand out too and looked at him. They all stopped talking for a moment, then Kovtun and his girlfriend slid into the booth. Suddenly she realised why Gibbs had wanted to keep her away from Kovtun, he seemed a little handsy, and that was when they weren't sat right next to each other.

They sat and talked for a couple of hours, both she and Gibbs had memorised their family histories, and they were going to do it together. She was glad that the story was memorable, and that she was happy to know that it seemed to be believable too. At least the questions she'd answered. They'd already learnt some things that she hadn't expected, so now they could leave, and she knew exactly what was happening. "That seemed to go really well." Gibbs commented as they got into the elevator, finally walking out.

"For the moment." Was the only response she could think of. Mostly because with that she at least admitted that she had doubts. She always had doubts, she had to be a pessimist some of the time. It was the only way she'd ever get through things.

"Let's get home, we can debrief there." Was the only comment he said. That was exactly what she needed, and that was the one thing that they could agree on. They both needed to debrief, and to let the other in on their thinking.

"That sounds so weird." It seemed obvious, at this point, that she really wanted to get through all of this and then just pretend she didn't have to deal with these people again, but that going 'home' was too strange. Especially as it wasn't home at all.

"True though." He smiled, and she once again had to resist the urge to just stab him. It would not help them solve their case. That was the way this whole assignment was going to go, she could tell it already. "Come on." He pulled her out of the elevator and shook her head. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he was trying to make sure she kept up. She really hadn't entirely adjusted to this very much. She'd never really thought she'd be doing undercover work, even with the particular skills she brought to the job. It still just wasn't the easiest way to break into this idea.


	6. Needed Supplies

The moment Brody had said she was going out Gibbs had jumped to a defensive stance. She thought it was hilarious, because they couldn't be together all the time, and she really needed some private time. On top of that, after a few days here they had both started running out of their emergency supplies. So she had marked down everything and was going to have to go shopping. He was still acting like this was a terrible idea, but she knew that, in reality. It was one of the best ideas she could have had, and they needed to start branching out a little now too. "You sure about this?"

"Yeah. What trouble, exactly, am I going to get into?" She asked sarcastically and laughed a little. The truth was that if she left the building there would be a detail not too far away, even if she didn't know exactly where. That was how things like this went. She did have a reason she should go out other than what she'd already said to him. "Besides, we're meant to be Russian and we only have terrible vodka."

"I don't think I want to know how you know that." He replied with a smile, and she was about to comment that she'd tried them all, but then realised that that was probably true. She was very fond of her vodka, and she was even more fond of it when it was good quality. It wasn't whiskey, but it wasn't bad. So she decided that saying nothing was probably actually safer.

"Because I do. I researched a few stores." She had spent most of the previous night searching online for a decent liquor store, she'd already seen good places to shop in the city centre. She hated shopping, but she got the feeling a woman like the type Tatyana was supposed to be would actually be very fond of shopping. So she was going to have to fake it until it was all done. "I need to go buy some essentials too."

"Like?" Gibbs asked, and she shook her head. Some of the essentials she wasn't going to go into. The others were obvious. Or they would be to someone who had looked at exactly how bare their clothes cupboards were. The closets had very little in them, and the drawers were only half full. They needed to look as though they were settling down here. That would require more than the bare necessities.

"Underwear. For both of us. I got your size and style, don't worry." She added the latter as an afterthought when she saw the look on his face about his underwear. She had seen the laundry hamper often enough to have learnt his style, and his size wasn't really hard to guess. "Some socks. I need warmer clothes. I'm reminded of why I never took that semester in Moscow." She was going to buy a nice coat, and hopefully some warmer pants too. It was cold here.

"You don't like the cold?" Gibbs asked, smiling a little. He gave her a smile similar to that whenever he learnt something about her that surprised him. She seemed to be good at surprising him, which was not what she would have expected. Maybe he'd had a thought of what she was going to be like, and she just wasn't.

"Not at all." She confirmed, because the cold was basically her own personal version of hell. When she eventually went to the great beyond, her hell was going to be frozen. She'd be far too comfortable in a hot hell.

"You were brought up in Michigan." He responded, and she shook her head. Yeah, it was cold where she was brought up, but she hardly ever spent any time where it was cold. Almost everywhere she went was well heated, or was down south or abroad. The truth was that she'd rarely spent time out of school in Michigan.

"In theory." She just responded, not sure if that was an appropriate answer, but she really wanted to get going now, otherwise she was going to be struggling to get everything in that she wanted to get done. She just wanted to have new, fresh underwear. Also some good vodka would definitely help her get into character sometimes.

"Alright. I have a couple of meetings to go to, as 'chairman' of this company." Gibbs shook his head, and Brody understood how much he hated this idea, even if it was only acting. He was never the desk job type, and she could imagine it being the kind of career that would have bored him to tears. Even acting it was clearly doing that too. "We should all thank the guy who is allowing us to use his company."

That was the one thing about this whole case that had confused her. She knew there was something going on, but what it was she didn't know and didn't entirely understand. "Yeah how does that even work?" Maybe now wasn't the best time for her to have asked that. Not when she wanted to get going, but it had slipped out. Thankfully, it seemed that Gibbs was as aware that they were both busy as she was.

"It was a deal." He replied with a smirk, and suddenly she understood why some people found him infuriating to work with. He did like to follow his own rules, and he liked to hide things he absolutely didn't need to share. That wasn't entirely what she would have liked out of someone she was going to be working with for some time, but now that she was in this situation, she actually quite liked it. She liked that he was predictable in some ways, and she definitely liked that he would, actually, tell her then the time was right.

"Oh." She just replied then turned to him and smiled slightly. It was genuinely an interesting concept. That someone could make a deal that would absolve them of crimes and allow them to run a multi-billion dollar franchise. Though the truth was, that was probably why and how the situation had begun. "Explain when this is all over." She said, thinking of the first time that she'd be able to actually ask him about this and not risk ruining their operational security. That was something that needed to be weighed too.

"I will." He nodded looking at her and grinned. She shook her head, somehow completely unsurprised that, once again, Gibbs was loving the fact that he knew something more than she did. It was hilarious for her, really. If he wanted to keep acting like this was the best thing in the world, she was going to let him.

"OK, see you in a few hours." She smiled at him then just set off out the door. While she still hadn't quite gotten used to Manchester in February, she really loved the atmosphere of the city. Walking through it everyone gave her a smile or said hello. Many clearly realised she was new and wanted to check that she wasn't lost. It was really calm, and not really like the cities where she'd lived. Then again, she lived in cities with high crime rates, that probably explained this more than almost anything else.

The one thing she was realising was that she still didn't understand the money, so she just decided to use her card for all the thing she bought. It was safer. She was walking by a cafe when someone vaguely familiar smiled and waved to her. A second later she heard the rapid Russian, and realised that it wasn't a hallucination, she really had just casually come across one of their targets. This could be a prime opportunity to get some information about their situation. "Hi, I met you last week. Tatyana right?" Darya was squinting at her slightly, clearly trying to make sure that it really was Tatyana Volkov, aka Meredith Brody. that would make sense if, possibly, Darya had a sight issue that she wasn't going to get seen to.

"Hello, oh Darya correct?" Pretending she wasn't certain was all she could really do. Making sure to stick to using Russian she smiled and came to a stop beside the table. It had been a long time since she'd been stopped liked this in a shopping mall, but it was definitely something helpful, for the moment.

"Yes that's me. Lugo's girlfriend." She smiled a little and blushed. In this lighting, Brody could finally see that she actually did look her age. She was about 10 years older, and definitely showed that without the make-up and kind lighting of clubs. As they looked at each other for a second, Darya lifted her arm and motioned to the chair opposite her. "Would you like to join me?" The smile on the older woman's face made her think that Darya wasn't actually used to sitting and talking without Kovtun being there, standing over her and keeping watch. That was the type of man he seemed, the kind who kept their life partners on a pretty short leash.

"Sure." She smiled eventually, after a few seconds considering it. Brody knew that all of this was an act, but she had to make it look completely natural. Sometimes she thought that agents who spent most of their careers undercover probably were better at acting than some Oscar winners. Not that that would always be too hard.

"Have you been in Manchester long?" Came the next question, and Merri broke away from her thoughts and sat trying to answer that. Why was it so hard to figure out how long they'd been here. She knew there was all the travelling too, but she wasn't going to include that. So she had to count days in her head to figure it out. Dignified, that was for sure.

"Just about two weeks." It felt longer. That was the only conclusion Brody could come to at that moment. It felt a lot longer than just two weeks. She still didn't know most of the city, or really any of it, but it still felt more homely than many places did after longer. Maybe that was just because she had been more prepared for this than some of her other moves. "Since Sander bought his nightclub."

"It's a big change." Darya nodded, smiling at Brody knowingly. Brody had never really looked into the file on Darya's history. She wondered how long it had been since she'd made the move to the UK and started up a life here. It didn't seem like the appropriate time to ask, so she just allowed Darya to continue steering the conversation. "You have been married long?"

"A few months, why?" That was not the question Brody had expected next. There were a lot of directions this conversation could have gone, and there were a lot of directions Brody had expected it to go. This was not high on either list. The lucky thing was that she could answer it, and hope that Darya gave her a reason as to why she asked.

"Lugo likes women, especially married women." The way the word 'married' was stressed gave Brody a moment's pause. She wasn't sure she liked the implication of that, and she definitely didn't like that Darya was waiting to continue until she was sure Brody understood. There was backstory here that maybe she didn't quite know, and without that she didn't get it. Eventually though, Darya continued anyway. "Be careful around him."

"I have no want for your boyfriend. I love my husband." It was so easy to say those words, she couldn't say them for the life of her in her private life, but here they just fell out? She was going to need to examine that part of her psyche in greater detail at another time, but it seemed like that was not exactly the time for it.

"They all say that. Lugo is... very convincing." Again there was a term that set off Brody's internal alarm bells. Was it the worry and fear that Darya uttered it with, or was it generally her experience of being an agent for some time. Anyone being convincing in this kind of situation set her on edge. "He will make you think that the only way he will help your husband will be if you do what he wants."

She looked at Darya for a few seconds and frowned. She still needed to interpret a lot of this, but there was a different question she was focusing on for a few moments. Just long enough for her to ask the question. It was important, but Brody again didn't quite know how or why it was. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You and your husband seem to be happy, and Lugo and I finally reached a place where I don't think we hate each other." The sadness that suddenly crossed the face across the table told Brody that maybe not everything was completely rosey for Darya and Lugovic. That was another bit of information that she was going to store for later. Knowing how she'd use this was less important right now than remembering it all.

"That is not healthy." She commented, then looked up at Darya. The sadness and defeat was still easy to read, and it wasn't until Darya caught Brody's eyes again that it was replaced with an almost silent stubbornness. It may be that it was understood how unhealthy this relationship was, but Darya wasn't ready to give it up.

"I know. But I can't live without him. I'm sure you're the same with your husband." For a moment Brody had to suppress the urge to giggle. The idea of being unable to live without someone was laughable to her, but she wasn't here for herself right now. She was Tatyana, and that young woman likely would understood what Darya was saying, so she bit her tongue.

"I guess." She eventually said, when she knew she'd be able to speak without laughing. It took a few seconds longer than she would have wanted. "Darya, don't be too dependent on him." She advised, knowing that probably wasn't exactly what she needed or wanted to hear from an almost-stranger, but it was something Brody wouldn't have felt right leaving unsaid.

"It is too late for that advice, but I thank you for it all the same." Darya managed to sound sincere, and Brody had to give her some serious respect for that. She was not at all surprised that Darya was good at hiding things too. She probably hid more secrets than almost anyone else, so it was second nature. "You are a kind woman, Tatyana."

"You can call me Ana." She eventually said, deciding that giving Darya that level of familiarity was going to help them in the long run. That was a way to build friendship and trust that they were probably going to need for the rest of this assignment. "I should really get back. I need to cook dinner."

"Of course. I'll tell Lugo I saw you." Darya nodded a little squeezing Brody's hand. While she understood that Darya was saying that she'd mention it to Lugovic as a good thing, Brody herself wasn't too sure, but she'd continue being polite. Her parents had brought her up that way.

"I'll do the same." Brody smiled and stood up, then tried to walk off as casually as she possibly could do. It wasn't as easy as she thought, as suddenly she just wanted to get back to their apartment and tell Gibbs about Darya's warning. Somehow, she wasn't at all surprised by it, but she still felt like it required a conversation between the two of them. Being aware was, right now, probably the best they could do.


	7. Dinner Party

Dinner had seemed like a great idea a few days ago when Darya had called her about it, but right now she wasn't sure. It had been a hard week, and there had been a lot of information they needed to digest, but they had decided to go anyway. It was making her nervous, and she was apparently nervously checking her outfit and make-up in any mirror they passed. As they stopped outside the door she felt Gibbs' hand on her shoulder and looked up to him in time to see him smile. "You look fine." He commented, and for a second she was shocked into a silence, then she just thought about where they were and how it could help their case and she suddenly was struck by the importance of it all.

"We need to make an impression." She commented and shook her head. She hated that that was how she felt about this, but it was all she could do. Gibbs just looked at her then slipped an arm around her shoulder. They hadn't, really, spent much time being physically affectionate with each other, but oddly it seemed to be working for this case without them working on it. She felt comfortable with him, and that certainly wasn't expected.

"I'd say you already did." He commented quietly, and for a second she almost forgot that she'd spoken to Darya. There was a difference, and either way, she didn't know why Gibbs was being so weird about it. Sure, this wasn't the way they'd planned to get close to Kovtun and Polzin, but it was a way that was open to them.

"It was a surprise lunch meeting." She repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. Gibbs had thought for a moment that she'd frozen him out of a meeting. The opposite was actually true though. she'd wished the whole time that he'd been right there. It had been a week though, and he was still commenting about it. "She saw me, we talked. That's it."

"So you say." He replied a little shortly, and she had to blink a couple of times before she thought of what he was really saying, and even then she didn't really get it, as it didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever. There were things about him that she just still didn't understand, but she would eventually, she was sure.

"You know, you're not supposed to get jealous." She teased a little, looking up at him. It was only a little it of a tease though, as it was quite clear that he was just a little jealous. She didn't know of whom nor why he was jealous, but he was definitely jealous. She loved that, and she actually enjoyed seeing that side of him, even if it was only acting.

"That may be too strong a word for what I'm feeling." He tried to say, and she just shook her head. She didn't believe that for even a second, because she'd seen how he normally reacted. This was completely different, and she was pretty sure he knew that too. Maybe that was why he was so adamantly denying it. She wouldn't force him to admit it, but she would remain sceptical.

"So you say." She turned his earlier sarcastic comment back on him. She hated that he had thought it was OK for him to be dismissive of her, and act like an idiot, and not really expect any kind of fall out from it. She was going to ensure that fall our was far and even. Even if that meant using his own words against him.

"Don't use my own words against me." He scolded with a wry shake of the head, and she tried not to look as though she was proud that she'd managed to get that reaction. She had way too much fun prodding and poking Gibbs into doing things he didn't necessarily want to do. At least she knew that he'd been jealous, while he didn't know much about that at all.

"Never. Your tie is all crooked, let me fix it." She said and stepped closer to him. She'd never been great at ties but she tried to get Gibbs' into the right place and length. It was going to annoy her if she didn't try. It was clear that he didn't think the same, or maybe he just didn't like her messing about so close to his neck.

"It's fine, Ana." He said, fidgeting a little. It was much harder to fix it when he was constantly moving. If he didn't move so much she would have already done it, but of course he had to keep moving. She hoped that she could stop that quickly with just a stern word. Somehow she doubted it, but it was worth a try.

She tapped his shoulder and looked at him angrily or a second, hoping that that would be enough. "Stand still." She ordered, then stood in front of him and finished adjusting the tie. As soon as she was done she looked up at him without opening the space, and a moment later that was a relief as Darya opened the door and smiled.

"Hello, welcome to our home. Come in." Darya invited them in quietly and it was plainly obvious that Lugo was home, because she was jumpy and nervous. Brody wished she could do more for the older woman, but in the situation she was in she could barely help herself. She was almost completely dependent on Gibbs, and she actually hated it.

"Thank you." Gibbs managed to answer faster than Brody could, and his hand went to the small of her back, pushing her gently through the door. It wasn't that she didn't want to go, she just had a sudden bad feeling about all of this. It probably came from her sudden discomfort about the situation that she was in.

"Ahh, it is my favourite new neighbour, Aleksander, come in and join us. You brought the beautiful lady with you too." Kovtun walked up to her and kissed her cheek. She tried to suppress the instant shudder that came up. "I must congratulate you, Sander. She is a fine woman."

"You'd be best pressed to remember that she's mine." There was a chill in Gibbs' voice that Brody hadn't heard before, and also that she wouldn't have expected. He was clearly feeling very protective of her, while at the same time, he wasn't trying to piss off their target at the same time. The truth was though she did need that help. Thankfully, it seemed for a moment that it worked.

"Of course, we're all friends here." Kovtun said then stepped away, going back to the rest of the people at the party. Brody looked at Gibbs then just started to speak to people. Letting him guide her round, not leaving his side until she'd been introduced to everyone. It was much easier, then, to get away and speak to some of the other women. It was on one of those passings that she felt hands on her waist, pulling her down, and a second later she recognised Kovtun's voice.

"You are a very beautiful woman." He all but purred into her ear as he pulled her right into his lap. She felt herself stiffen, and she knew that loosening up probably wasn't going to happen until he let go of her. As it was she just tried to act as though she was shy. Given her usual personality, that was far more difficult than she'd expected it to be.

"Thank you." She replied quietly, then thought of something inappropriate about someone else to give her a blush. That was the easiest way for it to happen, and she'd tried a great number of times before. Never in a situation that was as dangerous as this one.

"What does Sander get, under here." She heard whispered, and a few seconds later she felt fingers trailing up her leg toward the hem of her skirt. After a second she just slapped his hand away, not wanting him to think about what he was trying to do. It didn't matter though, because she knew he wouldn't have gone through with it in public. "I wonder that." He commented again, moving his hand back down to her knee, but leaving it on her leg.

She looked at it uncomfortably, wanting him to just take it away. Then if he wasn't going to take it away she wanted to punch it away. That she certainly wasn't going to do, because she wasn't going to jeopardise their case just because this guy was a creep. "It's no wonder, you have Darya for all those needs." She knew that Darya was watching, she could feel the other woman's eyes. So she spoke the last louder.

"Sometimes Darya isn't here, and I have needs that only a beautiful woman such as yourself can provide." She could feel his eyes raking over her, and all she wanted to do was escape, as quickly as she could, but again she didn't want to cause offense. She could put up with this. That's what she thought, at least, until she felt his hand starting up her leg again.

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested." She reiterated. Maybe it didn't matter to him what she was saying. Maybe he just thought that he was above all of this, the anger and the decision she was making to say no. Brody wasn't going to give in on that, and she knew that he was going to keep pushing. She could feel it in her bones. He wasn't going to give up, and she wasn't going to be given a choice, in the end.

"You may have to rethink that one day soon, Tatyana." The whisper in her ear was far more sinister this time, and far more threatening. She couldn't stop herself from shuddering this time, and she couldn't hold her breath long enough to stop the shocked breath of air either. As soon as her wits returned though, she knew she needed to say something, and that she needed to move.

"I love my husband, and that isn't going to change just because you have a wandering hand." She slapped his hand away hard and stood up, she felt his other hand follow her leg up to her ass, but she ignored it and just walked over to Gibbs, interrupting the conversation he was having just to kiss him, hard. That simple thing made her feel a little more safe.

"What was that for?" Gibbs asked almost silently into her ear a second later after they wrapped their arms around each other. It seemed that, somehow, Gibbs had known she needed something familiar. She wasn't going to explain why right now, but she was glad that he knew, and happy that he knew something was wrong. She held him another second then tilted her head so she could whisper to him.

"I'll tell you later, for now just kiss me back." She then pulled back and stroked his cheeks before leaning in to kiss him again. It seemed to distract everyone enough that nobody noticed she sat as far from Lugo during dinner as she could, and somehow, Gibbs knew to swap seats with her and let her sit away from him. After they'd all eaten, it was time for them to leave. She made the excuse that she was exhausted, and they stepped out the door.

Almost the moment they were out the door Gibbs took her hand and pulled her to a quieter bit of the corridor. They couldn't speak clearly here, but they could at least speak a little. That was enough when now all she needed, and wanted, to do was explain to him. He was watching her curiously, and after a few seconds he seemed to know that something had happened, and she'd needed to leave. "Glad to be out of there?"

"I think we just got a demonstration of that 'enjoyment of married women' that Darya mentioned." She commented and felt herself shudder again. She doubted it would be something he miss either. He was stood so close to her, with his hands on her shoulders. She took a long, deep breath then nodded, trying to let go of all the stress and anxiety she had. She was not so happy about any of this, but she needed to tell him exactly what happened.

"That would be my guess as to why you wanted to leave." He commented, and at that point he rubbed her arms slightly and frowned a little. She could tell that he knew. Maybe she wouldn't need to tell him. She was still going to though, because it was so much more important that they both know exactly what they were facing, and what lengths Kovtun was willing to go.

"That's why I came over and kissed you so hard." She sighed and blushed, thinking about that moment, then her mind drifted to what had happened before. That was when she realised that she hadn't told him what exactly happened, and that needed to happen to. "He was trying to get his hand up my skirt."

"Are you OK?" He asked, clearly concerned about her. At least she could tell him that there was no damage done. That while she was scared, and while she was upset, she hadn't been physically hurt. She'd managed to stop it before any of that had happened. It had been close, but she had.

"I'm fine, Sander. I promise." She needed to convince him of that. He was the type of man who would go and cause an issue if he needed to. Just because he couldn't abide when women were mistreated. It wasn't worth that though, their case wasn't worth that. Not right now anyway.

"Good. Let's get home." He suggested with a smile and started pulling her out of the small gap in the corridor that he'd found and just took her toward the stairs. Leaving, that was a wonderful thing. She could walk away from this place and not worry about it until she had to.

"Yes, we should do that." She agreed and smiled that was the most important thing right now. If they got home she could centre herself. Look at some pictures, watch some crappy TV, maybe drink a little more. She'd do so much better in that situation.

"Come on." He wrapped his arm around her back, and she reciprocated that gesture. Right now that was the most comfortable thing that any of them could have done. She was hoping this would make her feel more settled and secure. She loved him in this moment, because he wasn't treating her any differently, he was just being supportive, and that was what she really needed. She'd get past this, ready for the fact they were going to be under observation by Kovtun's team, but not right this moment. She would soon though, she had no other choice.


	8. Piccadilly Gardens

They had been spending the entire day sat together trying to figure out the next step in their deception. They had made a connection with their targets, and now they needed to fix things up together. They now needed to prove to him that they were a power couple. It would be easy enough to do she thought. "We need to sell this now, we know he's watching." That was a problem to her, she didn't like the idea that they were being watched, but she knew it was something that was necessary for this part of the mission.

"Yeah. What do you suggest?" She asked looking at him, there was almost certainly something they could do, and as she thought about it she realised there were things they could do. She was fed up of thinking about it by the time that either of them looked like they had an idea, but suddenly Gibbs looked up at her.

"We could go up to the Gardens?" He asked, it was more a question than a suggestion the way he said it, and she couldn't really imagine saying no to that. She thought about it, and that was when she realised that it would mean something.

"Walk through the entire city?" She asked, a grin on her face this time. It would get the attention of the people they needed, and it would also be a nice way for the two of them to further adjust to this. It had been nearly two months since they'd arrived here, and that was a problem. It had taken longer than they'd expected to get in with the targets, which they now needed to make up time for.

"We could go in Affleck's, then grab a coffee at Coffee Republic." They had, very quickly, become attached to that particular coffee shop in the city centre. It seemed like it was the only one who made their coffee just the way they like it. Before she could reply, Gibbs continued speaking, furthering his idea. "Then go sit on the grass."

"Alright. That sounds like a good way." She nodded in agreement. She was ready for this now, and she really would be happy when they had a firmer plan. They really needed to pick a specific plan, as otherwise they were going to flounder about.

"Then let's go." He held his hand out and took her hand in his. She smiled as they left the apartment, walking through the city was always amusing for her. She actually enjoyed walking through holding his hand. They might not really be a couple, but it felt good to spend time with someone who actually cared for her.

There were people who looked at them going through the city, and she could understand why, they didn't exactly look like a couple that would make sense. Walking through they got to the coffee shop, she loved this place and she knew that they did the best coffee in the city. As they always did as soon as they left the apartment, they slipped back into talking Russian. "They always do nice coffee here."

"They do, it tastes like home." Unsurprisingly he seemed to share the same opinion on the coffee as she did. He was rarely so talkative, until they were talking about coffee. Then he got wordy, and she quite liked that. It was definitely something that they could bond over whether they were in character or not. "Maybe that's why I like it so much."

"Yeah. That would make sense." She smiled, glad that this would make sense regardless of where they came from. Coffee that tasted like home was a common thought. One she heard every couple of days in the city. So Brody knew that no matter where they were talking about, it was a popular sentiment. As soon as they had their coffee order they walked over and sat on the grass, leaning into each other.

All of a sudden Gibbs started kissing her neck, and it wasn't until his lips were against her ear and he could almost silently whisper to her that she realised why. "There is a guy taking pictures over there, keeps aiming at us."

"Probably one of the henchmen." She commented, she'd seen him, and noticed that he wasn't actually taking pictures of the garden like he was clearly meant to be doing. The camera just landed on them, or had them in frame, a few times too many for it to be random.

"Possibly. We should put on a show." His suggestion made her smile, and though she didn't know exactly what he was planning, she could guess. It made her laugh a little, but she also wanted to play dumb for just a moment.

"Oh?" She asked with a smirk. She was certain that, if he had a plan, she should just go along with it. She was only surprised for a second when he leant in and kissed her gently. She smiled against his lips as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, really wanting to sell this moment. That was when his hand went to her cheek, stroking it gently. Suddenly it all changed a little, and the kiss deepened more than she expected. His hand was on her stomach, just under the hem of her shirt.

Putting her hand in his hair she held him to her, opening her mouth slightly as he slid his tongue along her lip. The sunshine was shining on them, and every movement brought them closer. Somehow she ended up laid partially underneath him, and she wrapped her arms around him and smiled, continuing to kiss him. After a few more minutes he pulled back and rolled over to her side. "Do you think that sold it." He muttered, laughing as he did. She couldn't help but giggle too.

"I think we should head back to the apartment." She suggested. Right now she needed to calm down, and the only way she could do that was to retreat to her little room in their current apartment and not think about his lips and other things. That wasn't happening while she was still all but pinned to his side.

"I don't think I should move for a few minutes." He said, and she was about to ask why when he nodded downwards, and she didn't need to look down to realise that he was talking about a little friend who had popped up to visit them. That was definitely a reason to not move.

"Oh." She grinned and looked away with a blush. She'd known that their little make-out session had affected her in an unanticipated way, but she hadn't quite realised that it had affected Gibbs too. His was more noticeable, and a little more embarrassing than hers. At least hers was well hidden. "How about I go get us another more while you calm yourself down."

"You understanding the money yet?" Gibbs said, grinning at her as he did. Every time she had to go and buy something by herself she'd asked that. They'd even worked out a sign to their observers for one to casually go to help her if she got too confused. She blessed that the European stereotype was that women like her were a little slower and always in need of help. It made this situation easier.

"It has numbers on it." She teased, sticking her tongue out as she did. They had joked a lot about her seeming inability to wrap her head around British money easily. It was just so different to what she was used to, and the different shaped coins confused her. She did like the two-tone colour on the £2 coin though. That was the only one she recognised automatically.

"OK, that works. See you in a few minutes." She smiled as he squeezed her hand. It was remaining second nature for them to speak in Russian to each other. It was the easiest thing for them to do, and it helped them sell what they were doing, and why they were doing it. But she knew that, right now, this wasn't going to work so well. Because she was developing a crush on him, and that would just make everything more difficult.


	9. An Unwelcome Visitor

It had been two weeks of being watched every day by one of Kovtun's henchmen. Three times a day their apartment was swept for bugs or listening devices, but had so far come back clean. That was a relief for them. Now though, she'd been buzzed by their contact on the ground floor that Kovtun and Darya were on their way up to the apartment. That gave her a few minutes to clean away the file she'd been reading and put on a terrible daytime TV show she found on BBC One. A few seconds later there was a knock on the door, and she just went over, reminding herself to be timid. As soon as she opened the door Kovtun started walking forward, bold as brass. "Tatyana, is Sander home?" He asked, rather than give her any kind of polite welcome.

"He will be in a few minutes. Come in. Hello Darya." She just stepped back and let them pass, smiling a little at the other woman. A week earlier they'd gone shopping, and while it hadn't brought about any new information, Brody had learnt that Darya would make a terrible witness, and she didn't actually know anything about Kovtun's business.

"It is so nice to be in your home again, the opening went smoothly?" The type of small talk that Kovtun was currently going through reminded her of when she saw people she knew in high school. She pretended to be interested in their life as it was now, but she wasn't at all interested, and only pretended she was to be polite. At least there was an answer, as 'they' had opened a new club in one of Manchester's priciest areas, so it wasn't even a lie.

"On Canal Street. Yes it went very well." It was a night out that she and Gibbs had actually both attended. He'd even managed to pretend to have fun, but she'd known that he'd been very happy when they'd eventually got back to the quiet of their apartment. The club had, in truth, reminded her of college. It wouldn't have been her first choice, anyway. Then she remembered that Darya and Kovtun had said they might come. "We thought we might see you there."

"I wanted to go, but Lugo had his commitment." Darya said before Kovtun could cut her off. Brody watched the two of them and the glare Kovtun shot at her, and the way Darya shrank back from that told her a number of things about that relationship, and none of them were very good. But at least she would be in the position to do something after the case was over.

"Darya." Kovtun ended up scolding a minute later, and while little about his voice changed, it was obvious the inflection made Darya flinch. There was definitely something unhappy there. But those words about not being able to live without him kept coming back to Brody. She couldn't stop thinking about them when she watched the two of them interact.

"Sorry." Darya muttered quietly, and it did sound almost like a beg. Maybe now she was reading too much into it, or she was thinking badly of Kovtun just because he was a target, but then she watched Darya's face, and saw the subtle chin wobble that showed she was on the brink of tears.

"You seem so young to be with Sander." Kovtun eventually asked after a few more minutes of being on the sofa and looking around at pictures. Most of them had been staged in DC before they'd left, including their wedding one, for which they'd eloped and married in secret, because her family wouldn't have approved of. That was their cover story, at least. Now though, she needed to bullshit an answer to a question she never expected to be asked.

"You don't pick who you fall in love with based on their age, Lugo." She said quietly and deliberately, thinking over every word. It was something she could say and that would convince Kovtun that they weren't bullshitting it. There was another way she could do that too, and that was to imply something sexual. She had always been told she was very good at that. "He and I connect, in every possible way."

As she was saying that, she pulled out her phone and sent the code she and Gibbs had worked out to say that they had guests. It had been the easiest, simplest way they could do it, and it was easy to do on a phone. Unfortunately though, Kovtun figured out she was doing something. "What are you doing?" He asked, glaring at her slightly as he did.

"Messaging Sander to say you're here." She threw out nonchalantly and dropped the phone into her lap. Making an excuse for why she needed to tell him was going to be harder. She'd figure something out. She nearly always did. Another few seconds of thinking reminded her again that implying something sexual always worked in these situations. "He doesn't like to come home to surprises. At least ones that involve clothes."

"You can take your clothes off, if you like." Kovtun suggested, and Darya looked stricken for a moment. It was completely unsurprising, really, given that her boyfriend was implying another man's wife should strip for him. The truth was, she wouldn't have done it even if he'd ordered her to. She wasn't really in to taking her clothes off for guys on a whim.

"I think I'll leave them on, thank you." She ended up commenting, then finally motioned to the sofas watching as Kovtun and Darya sat down, a huge amount of distance between them, while she dropped to the one opposite, lifting her legs up to keep them below and underneath her. It was also another measure of protection for herself that she was sure wasn't really necessary, but made her feel safer.

"Ana, are you ok?" Gibbs shouted from the front door coming in, she looked over the back of the sofa she was sat on and smiled softly, trying to put him at ease again. She understood that it was a worry that she'd been sat alone with their target for so long, but with Darya there she felt a little better about it.

"I'm absolutely fine, Sander." She smiled at him as he came round the sofa and kissed her cheek then sat next to her. Brody knew he was doing it mostly for show, but also because they were both well aware of the warning that Darya had given them, and they'd also heard a few others talking about Kovtun's 'womanising' ways. It didn't seem like it was actually something Darya had exaggerated to warn her off. One of the Greater Manchester Police files had numerous rumours of rapes and assaults too, but none of them could be proven.

"Lugo, I didn't expect to see you today, or you Darya." Gibbs said nonchalantly, as he slid further behind her so that, in the position she was sitting, she was leaning against his side. He then proceeded to wrap his arm around her and take hold of her hand. They'd never sat like this before, but it seemed like such a natural way for them to be sat. After a few seconds Gibbs spoke again, clearly trying to sound jovial. "Can we help you?"

"We have some business to talk about." Kovtun paused and looked at Darya, who almost dutifully stood up and started walking to the kitchen. Clearly, she knew what was about to be asked. Brody had known too, but they'd made a plan for this situation, and she wasn't planning on deviating from that. But if Kovtun insisted, maybe she should go. "Maybe the ladies could go and make us some food while we talk."

"You should know that Ana is involved in all my business decisions." Came the almost instant reply, and rather than saying anything Brody just squeezed his hand. It would be easier to convey what she was saying that way, in a sense, than by speaking. If Kovtun wanted her to leave, then she would. It would spare them all a lot of aggravation if she just did as she was told, at least for now. That wasn't a habit she was going to get into, and she was fairly certain that Gibbs would just be confused if she did start listening to everything he said.

"Darya is not." Kovtun's reply was full of derision and contempt, and it was obvious that he didn't value Darya as a person at all. Given that she was getting a little older in terms of the women who hung around Kovtun, Brody wouldn't have been surprised if Darya's days as Kovtun's lady were almost numbered. Obviously, she was only good for one thing in his world. "Women are not good with the business." He continued and just proved her point.

It was clear that that kind of thinking had insulted Gibbs a little too, as the hand she was holding squeezed a little tighter around hers. He then just kissed her head, and she realised he was buying time for a moment so he could reply politely. "Ana handles my books, she's very good for my business, and I want her to stay." There was still a slight edge to his voice, but Brody wasn't sure that anyone else would notice that. She'd just gotten to know him very well.

"Fine, very well. Darya can find some food." Kovtun gave in with a shrug. Clearly he didn't actually care enough to fight for it, and that was fair too. Darya was already in the kitchen, and that meant she wouldn't really know exactly what was said here. Suddenly, how little she knew about Kovtun's business made total sense. She was never in the room for those meetings, because that wasn't what Kovtun had wanted. That seemed like the perfect time for her to look to Gibbs and find out why he'd pushed it.

"Sander." She whispered in his ear under cover of leaning forward to kiss his cheek. She managed to cover it, she thought, rather well. Maybe it didn't come off as well as she thought, but nobody seemed suspicious, at least not immediately. She was going to take that as a win and just smile for a minute.

"Trust me." He whispered back a second later, his mouth hidden by her hair. That was a good thing about having longer hair, nobody needed to worry about hiding suspicious movements. They could be easily hidden in the hair. "What is it you wanted, Lugo?" Gibbs asked a moment later after he pulled back and settled her against him again.

"Now you are in Manchester and we have become friends I must ask you, would you like to become a wealthy man?" Kovtun asked, and he looked deadly serious. Brody's mind was spinning from that. The money that Tatyana and Aleksander Volkov had was already far above what most people would have in a lifetime. Judging by the incredulous look on Gibbs' face he'd had much the same reaction as she had.

"We're already very wealthy, Lugo." He seemed to want to stress the 'we' part of that sentence, and Brody could understand that. While originally she was meant to be a trophy wife, it had ended up being that Tatyana was far more involved, and in that instance it wouldn't be surprising if someone wanted to bring attention to everything that she'd tried to do, and that she'd succeeded in doing, getting to where she was. It was a nice subtle statement of support.

"It will make you five times wealthier than you are now." Kovtun smiled and gestured around wildly. For a moment Brody wondered if he was looking for something rather than trying to demonstrate a point, a point that probably didn't actually need demonstrating. "Millions of pounds. Paid to you from my companies." It sounded exactly like the kind of deal they were sent to investigate, on top of the drugs, so it was a no-brainer. But Brody knew that Kovtun would be expecting that. It was nice to know a moment later that Gibbs was thinking the same thing.

"What do I have to do?" Gibbs asked, looking at Kovtun seriously. Brody looked between the two of them, and it was obvious that for the first few moments neither was backing down. Gibbs wanted information, Kovtun wanted an immediate yes. Eventually, it was Kovtun who blinked first.

Kovtun didn't seem like he wanted to answer that question though, so it obviously wasn't for what anyone else would have thought. "That we can negotiate in the coming days. You will be working with my consortium of Russian businessmen from all over the world." That definitely sounded like their drug suppliers. For some reason it wasn't surprising that this was a wholly Russian operation. She remembered an old joke that Emily had made once while watching some terrible TV show. 'Russian's come everybody dies'. It seemed to be doubly accurate when you were dealing with the Russian mob. "Maybe you could open that hotel you spoke about?"

"You told him about the hotel?" Brody turned to Gibbs and glared, deciding to just play along. It was not something that she knew anything about, but was clearly a part of Gibbs' cover story earlier. That meant she should play like she knew something about it, but maybe that she thought it was secret.

"Not intentionally." He played along with her mock offense, and started nuzzling her cheek and smiling, trying to get back on her good side. It was all for show, and she knew that, but it did make her feel kind of good. She actually enjoyed this bit of the assignment, mostly because she knew the harder bits were coming up.

"Idiot." She sighed and looked back to Gibbs and shook her head, then after a minute turned her head to Kovtun and without waiting for another word from Gibbs she spoke about her next thought. "Can we think about this some?"

"I will bring you a contract in time, you will be best to have decided by then. We can negotiate when I bring my solicitor." Kovtun stood up, and it was clear from the way he did it that he was fed up of this conversation, and of not getting exactly what he wanted. That was what they needed right now. They had expected this to take longer, but it hadn't.

"Very well." Gibbs stood up and held his hand out, and as the two men shook and Kovtun look away, Brody caught a look of distrust on Gibbs' face. He knew that Kovtun was going to try something eventually, he just couldn't prove it. That had always been the problem, it seemed. The burden of proof was even harder when you were in another country.

"Darya, forget the food this didn't take long." He shouted, and a moment later Darya turned up at his side. It was almost as though she hadn't walked, she'd just suddenly appeared there. She would have been suited to a life of stealthy work if she'd had someone to stop herself from throwing her life away. Now though, she was stuck with perverts like her boyfriend. "We'll go to Astoria." Was the last words they heard before the door slammed behind the couple, not so much as a goodbye.

"That was... interesting." Gibbs commented a moment later, just looking a little worriedly after the couple. Interesting really wasn't what she would have thought in response to this. Interesting was far too tame a word. She would have gone with bonkers, or possible ridiculous. Rarely interesting.

"Not the word I would have used. Think we're in?" She had to ask if he thought this meant they were trusted. They had to know, really, one way or another to be able to plan the rest of the job. She was sure they'd all find out eventually. Eventually being the issue.

"Oh we're in, but I'm not sure we want to be." Gibbs just looked at her and shook his head, then clearly went into the kitchen to try and rescue whatever Darya had been cooking. Neither of them had really adjusted to a steady diet of Russian food, and tended not to eat it in the apartment. But if food was prepared or made, they may as well eat it. She just watched him leave and thought for moment, there was a case to be made about them not wanting to be in with Kovtun, but really, in the long run, it was why they were there. they'd have to suck it up.


	10. Partnership

Brody had decided to leave Gibbs, in his role as the big shot, downstairs working over the last few details of their deal. She wasn't really happy about leaving him, or about having Kovtun in their apartment. It felt like they'd willingly invited in the enemy. She was hoping that, by the time she went back downstairs, Kovtun was gone and she wouldn't have to think about it again. Suddenly she heard someone behind her, so she turned, expecting Gibbs. He was not the one there, which meant she had to keep up her Russian. "What are you doing in here?"

"Your husband is my business partner now." Kovtun muttered quietly. The closer he moved to her, the more threatened she felt. She wanted to try and keep the boundaries of the job and the room where she slept, where she was most herself. She needed this room to stay sacred, to stay protected.

"I know, but this is our room, and I didn't invite you in here." She looked at him again, and the fact that he was still moving toward her was bothering her, she held her hands up and tried not to think about anything.

"What would your husband say if he knew you weren't helping me feel happy here?" He asked, then grabbed her hands and held them tightly between them.

"Let go of me." She struggled, trying to get her hands free. It didn't work, and he just held her hand tighter. He ended up pushing her back hard and slamming her against the wall. Lights flashed in her eyes for a moment after her head hit the wall with the force that Kovtun pushed her.

"I thought you would want to make things easier for your husband." He was clearly trying to be alluring, but there was a hint in his voice that said she wasn't going to have a choice. She was going to do as he wanted or not at all. She felt him holding her hands, and tried to free herself again. "You can do that."

"No. Get off of me." She tried to push him off again, but this time he held her hands above her head, and she could feel his breath on her neck. She just continued struggling, but he had clearly figured her out, and was staying away from her legs. "Please, I don't want to do this." She asked again as he moved toward her again.

"What are you doing, that is my wife." She heard, and almost instantly Kovtun jumped back from her. He was still holding her hands above her head, but he wasn't pressed against her anymore. She kept struggling, trying to push him off her hands. She wanted for him to just let her go completely.

"I was telling her that, sometimes this can make a business deal go smoother." With his other hand he stroked her cheek, and she just bit her lip and struggled again. She really just needed for him to let her go so that she could be free.

"Our deal does not include you being able to put hands on my wife." Gibbs came over and pulled Kovtun's hands off of hers. She suddenly felt more free immediately. She took a couple of deep breaths and fought her automatic desire to kick out at him.

"Please, just go." She said instead, wanting him to just leave so that she didn't have to look at him anymore. She needed to not be anywhere around him, she wanted to be with Gibbs or someone else who was actually involved in their assignment. She wasn't necessarily afraid, but she certainly wasn't unaffected.

"She asked you to leave." Gibbs said, glaring at Kovtun. Clearly, Gibbs was not at all happy about what had gone on. She was happy that he had her back. She had known, logically that he had her back, but seeing it in action was really important to her.

"We shall meet tomorrow, to finalise the deal." Kovtun said, looking at Gibbs, then walked away. They both heard him walking through the apartment, and grabbing his things. Neither of them wanted to move.

They both stood frozen until the door slammed shut, then she sagged forward and he ran and grabbed her tightly for a moment so that she didn't fall. Once she was back on her feet he stepped back, not really thinking about anything. He was watching her closely, and she knew that he knew she was affected. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know." She answered honestly. She didn't know if she was alright, and she wasn't sure what to think. She looked down to the floor and just tried to think. She didn't want to face this again.

"Meredith, look at me." He said then lifted her chin. She didn't really want to look up from the floor, but he didn't let her keep looking away. He was very good at making sure he wouldn't look away from her. "You OK?" He asked, and kept his fingers on her chin.

"He was trying to..." She muttered, barely able to process it. She knew that could have happened, had Gibbs not come to check on them. Brody really wasn't happy with the fact that had almost happened, but she really wasn't sure what else to do right now.

"I know, I know." He pulled her into his arms and kissed her cheek, then her jaw. He pulled back a little and looked at her, and she saw in that moment how scared he'd been for her. He leant in then and kissed her lips, gently at first, then getting deeper. Unlike the only other time they'd kissed like this, out in the Gardens, this wasn't for show. After what had just happened she needed this. She needed to be held and loved by someone who cared for her.

As they kissed she started pushing him back toward the bed, and grinning a little as she did. "What are you doing?" She smirked a little as his hands slid to her ass. They had been building up on this almost since the minute they'd gotten here. She'd known since the day in the Gardens that there was something between then. His hands stroked over her ass and she couldn't help but smile as he started kissing down her neck.

"Do you want me to stop?" He asked, and she smiled pulling him as close as she could. He pushed her pants down, and feeling that she reached down and started slipping into his pants. After a few seconds they were both complete naked, and as she fell to the bed she felt like this was inevitable.

There was no warning when he pushed into her, and she groaned loudly, holding onto him tightly. She let her legs fall further apart, giving him a little more space to get deeper. She stroked the side of his face softly as he looked down at her. She smiled a little and kissed him hard.

The more they moved together, the more she knew that they were doing what was needed. She breathed heavily, and managed not to scream as she clamped around him. A second later she felt him following her over, and she didn't regret anything. She just wanted to stay here, and he clearly felt the same, holding himself up over her. Stopping moving but looking at her, kissing her again.

She smiled and pressed her forehead against his. As she came down the more she realised that this had probably been a really bad idea. They probably shouldn't have been doing this. But she also didn't want to stop it, and she was far too comfortable here. "We probably shouldn't have done that." She muttered, thinking about the rules that they all heard about.

"Probably not." He agreed, but then leant forward kissing her hard. She wasn't so used to the fact that anyone else would be thinking the same way she was right now. There were definitely worse things for them to have done, so she was going to stop overthinking it.

"I don't regret it though." She just wanted to make that clear, given that they were in this position, and it wasn't the more normal of places to be. She'd actually never felt the simultaneous combination of guilt and happiness after sex before, but she quite liked it, in an odd way.

"Me either." He rolled over and kissed her again lightly. She was happy that he seemed to be at least as cool about this as she was. She cuddled up to him a little more than she had been doing, until he moved a little and stood up again. "Sleep, I'll go lock up and tell them that we're all in." He leant down and kissed her again softly.

"Come back soon." She muttered, watching him as he got out of the bed. She didn't realise that she had enjoyed this as much as she had until right now. What had happened with their target had freaked her out a little, but Gibbs had had her back, and that was enough for her. She felt protected right now, and she hoped that she was going to be able to keep feeling that way. They had a job to do, and being afraid of their target wouldn't really help anything. So she'd do it.


	11. The Next Day

This argument seemed like it'd been going since the moment they'd gotten out of bed. The night had been spent together, the first time they'd actually shared the bed in this apartment, and she had learnt more than she would have thought about him, just from the short amount of time they'd spent together. Gibbs seemed like he'd been taken over by this, and he really didn't want to put her in a position where she'd have to face Kovtun in person again. "You're not going." He said forcefully as she put her clothes on and shook her head at him.

"Yes I am." She argued back, refusing to give in to this when really there was no reason for her to. Would it be uncomfortable? Yeah. It probably would be. At least in the beginning, but she wasn't willing to compromise herself because of one incident. It had been unpleasant, and a little scary. But she hadn't been hurt, and something wonderful had come in it's wake. She couldn't really feel too terrible about it, purely because something so wonderful had come from it.

"Mere- Tatyana." Gibbs caught himself before using her name, but that reminded her of the night before, and how he'd used her real name when he was trying to get her to tell him if she was OK. That just made her smile again, as everywhere where that had led to had been amazing, and she was just happy that it had all fallen well for her in the end. It could have been horrific and terrible, but it hadn't been in the end. She'd been spared that. So in that light, she wasn't going to let Gibbs bench her.

"I'm going." She was standing firm on that point, and she refused to be coddled. Brody knew if she could put a spin on the whole situation, if she could make it so that he'd see that they needed to be together for this, then he would stop pushing to exclude her. Maybe that wasn't what Gibbs though he was doing, but really, it's what he was doing. "We need to put on a united front here, and he can't hurt me when you're there." She knew the last to be true, because Gibbs had already saved her once.

"He almost did yesterday, and I was only downstairs." That response was said almost too quietly for her to hear, but she did hear it. She just sat beside him on the end of the bed and took hold of his hand gently, then reached up with her other hand and turned his face toward her. There were so many things that could have happened but hadn't, she didn't want him to be like this about something he'd stopped.

"But you stopped it, and then other things happened." She smiled then leant forward and kissed him, smiling a little when a second later he started kissing her back. They both pulled back after a few seconds and she just nodded a few times, certain that in this situation this was the right thing for the both of them.

"I couldn't stand it if he put hands on you." Gibbs whispered again after a second, this time a little louder, so that she would definitely hear. That was when she realised that right now that was his biggest fear. Not that anything would happen to one or both of them on this assignment, but that he wouldn't be able to stop something if it happened to her. Maybe that was something he needed to get over, because bad things happened.

"Well, now he can't." Was the simple response she gave, and knew that she still needed to push what she wanted to get him to agree to it. Not that he really had a choice, if she wanted to go she'd just go, and that would look far worse to anyone and everyone there than them looking a little tired but being there together. "Look I can write things down and shit. That's how we do this. We both gotta get past it." That was the simple fact. They needed to get past it, both of them.

Gibbs though, it seemed, still wasn't absolutely convinced. That was clear from the look he gave her and the slight tilt of his head. She recognised that look, just as she did most of his looks. They were the ones he gave when he thought you should stop fighting him. The likelihood of her stopping that was negligible. She fought with everyone, and she was OK with that. "You still don't have to come today."

"You have to let me do my job." She argued after a few seconds, and he just bowed his head. That was when she knew she'd won that battle. She still wanted to ask him about what he'd reminded her of. About using her name, and all the other things that had come up, but that one mostly. "You know, you called me Meredith yesterday."

"I did?" He asked, clearly surprised. She could see him stop and start thinking back over everything he'd done and said in the last 24 hours. She didn't know if he'd even noticed it, or if it would even jump out at him as he played the day back. It had been so innocent, and he'd been trying so hard to keep her calm. She wouldn't have blamed him at all if that didn't come back to him. The words at least.

"You almost called me Meredith a few minutes ago too." She commented, smiling a little. She actually liked hearing her name. It made her feel just a little more connected to home. To the life she hadn't had contact with in more than a month. She missed her friends, and Emily, but they knew she was on an assignment, and that she'd be back in contact as soon as she could be. Hearing her name just reminded her of all of this.

"I knew about that one, but yesterday?" It was clear that it wasn't coming to him. She could understand that, and she knew that he would try anything he possibly could to remember. Maybe she could just give him a hint of where to look. Of what to think about when it came to when he'd used it. That would be easier than him struggling to remember.

"Right after... you know." She didn't want to say the words again, not now they had finally gotten past that in the conversation, but it was the best way for her to explain it. Maybe then he could pinpoint exactly where in the conversation it was. "You called me Meredith. Then you kissed me." She smiled and blushed a little as a look of recognition crossed his face, and he smirked slightly looking at her.

"I guess I did, didn't I?" His face split into a far wider grin, and after a few moments he just pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. She knew now, without doubt, that the day before had changed a great many things or them. Eventually they were going to speak about it, she was certain of that, but that wasn't going to be right now, or even while this case was ongoing. She pulled back a little after a few seconds and just stroked the side of his face softly.

"I know you're worried about me, and I know you want to protect me. But I signed up for this just like you did, and I knew that..." She swallowed and shook her head. There were certain things when it came to missions like this that male agents didn't think about, and female agent took as a standard risk. "When it came to the Russian Mob that I was probably going to have to deal with something like that."

"Maybe I just hoped you wouldn't." Gibbs said quietly, and she wondered how long that had been his hope. She probably didn't need, or want, to know really. As she watched him he looked away, clearly looking even more awkward and uncomfortable. "Or that after the first time I'd be able to see it coming."

"I didn't see it coming, I didn't even know he was the one in the room. I thought it was you." She shook her head again, keeping her hand against his cheek. The truth had always been that she would have been far more cautious if she hadn't just made the assumption that Gibbs was right behind her. "I wouldn't have let him get so close if I'd thought it could have been him. But that's the past, we need to move on." She pushed and smiled a little softly.

"So, let's get this over with." He replied after a few more seconds of just sitting there quietly. Brody understood that he felt like he was to blame for not knowing what was happening, or knowing what was going to come with Kovtun being in the room. If she hadn't known, she wasn't sure how he would have done that though.

"Yeah." She nodded a little bit, and that reminded her that, while she wanted to go she wasn't really certain she could face up to Kovtun, and she thought that Gibbs probably at the very least deserved to know that. "While I want to go, I'm not promising that I won't be hiding behind you a little."

"Today, I'll let you do that." He kissed her forehead and chuckled, and she was just ended up giggling. For some reason she suddenly thought it was absolutely hilarious, and she was trying as hard as she could to stop. It wasn't the easiest thing for her to do right now. "Don't laugh, I'm being nice."

"Good." She smiled and kissed his cheek, wrapping her arms around him for another second then standing up and starting to walk. She knew that he'd follow her in the end, of course he would, because he would want today to be over as fast as she did. The truth was that no matter how much time they spent preparing, today would go one of two ways, and she just hoped that what happened yesterday wasn't going to change anything.

The trip across the city was tense, and a few minutes later they were walking together into Kovtun's warehouse, and as she'd thought she would, she ended up walking a few steps behind Gibbs, just not being sure how she felt about it all right now. Almost as soon as they got to the table, Kovtun stood up and looked at Gibbs with a smile, as if the previous day hadn't happened. "Ahh, Sander, it is nice to see you. Oh, I didn't expect to see you. Gentlemen, this is the lovely Tatyana Volkov, Sander's wife." Kovtun motioned to her too and smiled around all of his colleagues.

"Hello." She said timidly, keeping her hand on Gibbs' back where it had gone when she started standing behind him. She wasn't scared, or afraid, she was mostly just wary, and a little concerned for both their safety. Looking around she worked on memorising the other faces, knowing she'd probably need them before long. That was the way deals like this went, she might need one of them later.

"Sit here, Ana." Gibbs muttered after a while and leant in to her again, holding her for a moment around the waist before he whispered in her ear. Clearly he had just wanted to let her know something, and he wanted it to look as natural as he possibly could. "Squeeze my hand if you need, OK." He said, and she just nodded a few times more.

"I will." She nodded and took hold of his hand as he sat down beside her. She already had a pad of paper and a pen out, so she could at least look like she was writing. That was the very least she could do, though she was probably just going to doodle, like she'd always done. That was how she'd gotten through meetings.

"Gentlemen. Let's make plans." Kovtun said, and almost immediately Brody noticed that she was immediately pushed out of the conversation, and she was actually perfectly OK with that. She didn't say anything, or join in at all through the meeting, deciding that keeping a low profile was going to be a lot easier than anything else and would, hopefully, keep her out of the line of attention.

She knew who it was behind her even before she felt the hand landing on her ass. She mentally wasn't prepared for this, but she could try to not just turn round and hit him like she would have done if he'd been any other perp. "I am glad you came today." She heard him say softly, and after a few seconds she reached back and slapped his arm, jolting it slightly.

"Remove your hand or I'll remove your head." She threatened and shook her head then stepped forward, forcing his hand to drop back toward the floor. She was very good at that really, and now she wasn't going to be afraid to come back at him a little. Because if she didn't that would be against the character she'd developed a little.

"You're beginning to become more trouble than you're worth." Kovtun threatened, and for just a moment Brody could see a way out of this. An easy way for her to push him away and to point out that Gibbs was the only one that stood any kind of a chance. That could, possibly, be enough to get Kovtun to leave her alone.

"I am, believe me." She agreed readily. The truth was that not that many people had ever managed to handle her in her 'real' life. But she could at least say that someone could handle the character she was playing. That was the important thing right now. "Sander is the only person who was ever able to handle me."

"I'll figure something out." He replied with a sinister growl, and she tried not to let it affect her. The truth was that, right now, she didn't exactly find it all that worrying. Maybe she was just beginning to trust the team around her, or maybe she was accepting that the less she let him affect her the better. "I'll give up for now, but one day, I will get what I want."

"No, you won't." She shook her head again, because he could think all he wanted about getting his way with her one day, she wasn't going to let him have that power over her, or let him know that anything he did was going to cause her a moment's more grief than she'd already given him.

"Just you wait, Tatyana." Came the last reply as he walked away, and Brody just shook her head. She kept her eyes on him the further he walked so that she always knew where he was, and how far away from her he was.

"What was that about?" Gibbs asked, coming up behind her and putting his hand on her shoulder. She wasn't sure how she felt about any or all of this right now, but that threat was something she doubted would ever come to pass. She'd fight like tooth and nail against it anyway.

"He was just being an asshole. Let's go home." She just wanted to be away from this place and all the horrors it had probably seen. She recognised the bloodstains on the floor, and the random chains hung around. She was willing to bet that this out-of-the-way warehouse was where Kovtun would have his enemies killed, and she was willing to bet that at one time he was considering bringing her and Gibbs to this place.

"Sure, come on." Gibbs wrapped his arm around her back and nodded to the others who were still there. She knew that mostly left were underlings, people who had nothing to do with the running of the businesses, but that didn't matter all that much. They couldn't let their guard down for even a second. Right now she was happy enough to be cuddled up into Gibbs' side, especially after yet another run in with Kovtun. She hoped that he stuck to his word and stopped trying for now.


	12. Stuffed Toys

A trip 50 miles south to attend a sporting match that she didn't really care about hadn't been how she'd planned to spend the night, so when she'd text Gibbs that she was back and where was he, she'd been a little surprised for him to say the warehouse. She got the driver to take her there anyway, glad that at least Darya had allowed them to use her driver, the one that the police were contributing. It gave them some freedom. As she walked in she saw the boxes, the one closest to her being open. As she stood there she heard movement, and looking up it was obviously Gibbs. "What the hell is all this stuff?"

"Stuffed animals." He replied simply, and she had to bite her lip to stop herself giving the automatic response, which really wouldn't be polite or kind. She just shook her head and picked one up, giving it a sniff. It was quite an awful, musty smell, and she wasn't sure what she thought she'd figure out from smelling it. Especially given that it was a stuffed animal in a dank, dusky warehouse.

"Stuffed with?" She asked, just to see what he would reply with. She was fairly certain that Kovtun wouldn't have told him anything about what was happening with the stuffed animals, and right now all that could be seen was the teddy's, and what they had inside of them remained a mystery. That she could live with, right now, but she was still curious about what had been said.

"Stuffing, I assume." He replied when she finally looked at him, and this time she did reach out and playfully poke him in the stomach, one of her favourite ways of winding him up. "Blackley had one of her UI's rub a dog round this place, it's clean." He shrugged a little and dropped it all back into the box it had some from. She looked down at them and realised exactly how ugly and terrifying these teddy's were. She would have been horrified if these had been the toys she had as a child, but obviously they sold well now.

"That's good, isn't it?" She asked, because she didn't understand why he sounded so disappointed about it. There were a lot of things they wanted out of this mission, but the biggest thing would be that Kovtun was trusting them. Gibbs didn't seem to be acting as though this was a good thing though.

"Yes and no." Gibbs eventually answered her question, and while that was something, it wasn't everything. She didn't really understand this at all now, and for just a minute she wished that he'd confide in her. That he'd tell her what he was thinking and how he was thinking it. What had brought him to that conclusion.

"Explain." She said and rolled her eyes softly. He just took her chin and kissed her lightly, clearly trying to distract her from what she was thinking. Maybe he didn't trust anything, or maybe he was just worried, but he clearly wasn't going to say a single thing to her while they were there.

"When we get home." Gibbs kissed her again and started leading her out of the warehouse. She felt his hand going to the small of her back, the spot where his hand always settled when they were walking together like this. It was something that seemed to make him feel happier about it. "Where've you been this evening anyway?"

"I was taken to a place called Stoke-on-Trent to watch a soccer match by Darya." She had spent the entire evening being cried on, and while she hadn't really seen very much of the match she had learnt a huge amount about the targets of their mission. Darya liked to talk, and sometimes her personal tolerance for bullshit actually helped deal with people like her. It also helped her drag out a lot of information from less than willing subjects. It was why she'd been recommended for interrogation when she'd been a trainee. "I don't mind it."

"Soccer?" Gibbs asked with a smirk on his face, and she poked him in the side again. Smiling at the giggle that she was fairly sure she was in a very small club for having heard. She never would have thought that he'd be ticklish, or be the type that would giggle when he was, but somehow both things were true. His amusement at her liking soccer, however, was less amusing to her. She'd always liked soccer.

At least she could let him in a little bit now, and tell him something that not many people in her life now knew. She just didn't like to tell everyone things about her before she joined NCIS. It was something separate, someone different. But it was still part of her, and she could let Gibbs in on that, since she'd let him in on everything else. "I played soccer in college, I'll have you know."

"That I would not have expected." He ended up laughing, and she just smirked as he stepped away and started locking the warehouse up. She knew there were security paid for here, and that all of that mattered, but she also knew that Gibbs liked to lock it all up herself. Brody wasn't sure exactly how she felt about obsessively locking things, but Gibbs clearly felt strongly about it. "I never played sport, never needed to."

"Of course not." She teased and poked him again as he walked closer to her side. She thought now that he might have actually been purposefully coming near her when she wanted to poke him, just to keep that teasing, bantering side up. She quite liked it too, but it did make her want to keep poking him.

"Get in the car." Came a sarcastic order when they reached the car and Gibbs got the door open, she just smiled at him sweetly as she ducked under his arm and then smirked a little more as she got settled. "Was the match a good one?" He asked once he was in too, and she had to think about that. Checking the driver was still theirs she nodded softly and bit her lip, the car starting back toward the city.

"I honestly don't know, I spent most of it listening to Darya get slowly drunker." If she could have controlled the other woman's drinking she would have done, but the simple fact was that she hadn't really thought that she would have been able too. Darya was downing bottle after bottle of expensive champagne, and had only stopped when she'd been almost unconscious on the way home. "Things are not all that happy with her and Lugo." She commented after a minute, deciding to tell him exactly what was happening with Darya and Kovtun.

"Oh really?" He seemed at least as interested as she'd been when Darya had started talking. They all knew that Darya had nothing to do with the business, but then tonight she'd learnt that while the official business was one thing. The illegal side was something else, and through gossip, Darya knew almost everything about that. She clearly got it all out of Kovtun too, which made her an invaluable friend.

"No, she's also given me information that is going to solve a lot of murders when this case wraps up." Brody just smirked at Gibbs, and he watched her for a few minutes as the car crawled along the late night traffic on Deansgate. As he took in what she was implying, she saw the first question that came to his mind and just nodded quickly. "It's all recorded."

"Good." He smirked a few minutes as the car stopped under their building. They both got out and while she just nodded to the driver, Gibbs clapped him on the shoulder and smiled before coming round to her and nodding. "Thanks. Let's get in." He muttered as he wrapped his arm around her back and kissed her cheek then her neck. It was a really nice way for them to walk up to their apartment, and she actually liked it a lot. It was one of the few ways they could show publicly how they had come to care for each other, all under the guise of being in character.

"This drive seems shorter every day." She commented quietly and smirked as she looked back over her shoulder. Every time she went out to the warehouse it seemed to take less time to get home. Or maybe she just no longer noticed how long it took for her to get home, that was also possible. The city tended to keep her mesmerised, and she enjoyed looking around, studying the ever changing sky-scape of the city. New buildings seemed to be popping up so regularly here.

The people fascinated her too, and when you ended up stuck in traffic daily it was definitely better than pretending she didn't see the world outside the windows, and it seemed she wasn't the only one who noticed where her interests rested. "You get nosier every day." Gibbs commented still nuzzling into her neck, and she couldn't help but smile slightly at that. She found it adorable that he was doing that as she tried to unlock their door.

"It's a chronic problem, I know." She laughed, and as soon as they were in she kicked the door closed and locked it. Then saw the green light turn to red, meaning that they were now clear, and in private. The only listening devices in the apartment being turned off, and all of them being run by Greater Manchester Police. They wouldn't be turned on again until Brody or Gibbs signalled for it to be turned on in the morning. "Now, tell me about the downside to there being no drugs in the warehouse?" She asked, she hadn't forgotten it, but since he'd wanted to wait til they were back, she'd held off pestering. At least he seemed to realise she would pester.

"Could be that Lugo is testing us before he brings in the less legal stuff." Gibbs paused for a few seconds, and that was enough time for her to narrow her eyes and wave her hand in a sign to continue. One half of his theory was out there, but there was another half, and she was waiting for that foot to drop too. "Could be that he already suspects us and is trying to draw us out."

"Which do you think it is?" She asked, even though she knew he hated to put his opinions out there, especially when he didn't have all the facts, she was going to ask anyway, and hopefully push for the answers that she wanted and needed. That was how she would be able to work out he own opinions on this.

"Given that he's allowing you off with his wife while I'm here working with him, I'm guessing the former, but I'm not betting the farm, not yet." That seemed to be fairly evident. He was hedging his bets, and clearly wanted to be safe and protected when something, anything, could still happen to one or both of them.

"Apparently, he's been known to murder businessmen who fall short of what he expects. That's how he ended up 'owning' Darya, her word." She suddenly remembered that tidbit as they spoke. She agreed with his idea, especially given that Darya was yet another thing that Kovtun seemed to think that he owned, and Darya was happy to go along with it. "He killed her former fiancé and claimed her as his."

"That's beyond what even I thought." He commented after a few seconds, and he started taking his shoes and jacket off. Clearly deciding that they could start getting comfortable now. "I want to get this guy." He commented just as she turned away and hung her jacket up. That was all she'd needed to do, help Gibbs capture Kovtun. That was when she remembered one more thing that she'd wanted to say to him.

"Watch your back, yeah." She said quietly, hanging things up and not looking at him. A second later she felt two arms snaking around her back and lips pressed to her neck, and her shoulder. "Apparently Lugo started with her just by having a crush on her, trying his hand." She couldn't imagine not telling Gibbs this information, as it put him in even more danger than before.

"Nothing is going to happen to me." He whispered quietly, and kissed her neck a few times more. He was being as gentle as he possibly could be, and the more she felt him kiss the more at ease she felt. He had a way of making her feel like all the worries she hadn't weren't as important as she thought. It was a gift, and something she'd never really experienced before.

"Good." She just ended up muttering and smiled reaching back and running her hand through his hair. She quite liked being stood that way, and she liked even more that she was comfortable. That wasn't a situation she'd been in a lot in her life.

"Tell me what else you learnt about their unhappy marriage." Gibbs asked quietly into her ear a few minutes later and kissed along her neck. That was a moment where she didn't want to think about their case. She wanted a little time to herself, with him. Where she wasn't worried about something she couldn't really change.

"I'd rather focus on our happy one for right this moment." She smiled, turning around in his arms. She just took the opportunity to kiss him hard and laughed a little when he picked her up and held her close to him. There was going to be plenty of time for them to share every detail, but moments like this helped sell them as a couple. Brody was absolutely certain that they were better now than they had been to begin with, and that was all because they'd given in to the fact that they were actually attracted to each other. The case could be put aside until the morning.


	13. Sex and Lies

It had been almost two weeks since Kovtun had started storing things in the warehouse, and Brody hadn't seen much of Darya since their trip to the soccer match in Stoke. That was until she'd gotten a call about going for dinner, and she'd thought that it was a great idea. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Darya wasn't really paying attention, and nor was she really talking. That's what made it obvious that something was bothering her, and Brody decided that she needed to make sure she knew what it was. "Are you alright, Darya?"

"I am fine, why?" Darya snapped, and that confirmed to Brody that something serious was bothering her. It actually made Brody a little more worried about what on Earth could have happened. So she needed to think up ways to convey her observations that wouldn't be far too much for someone who'd only known her for a few weeks.

"You've been quiet today, and you've barely eaten." Was what she settled on. She knew that, in the long run, that was probably going to be the easiest thing. She wished that it would be easier to do things and tell people things, especially since she knew that Darya needed more support than anyone, but right now nobody could help her. It was obvious that Darya was thinking through her answer herself. Obviously, Brody wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

"There was a fight, with Lugo." She said eventually, looking at Brody and shaking her head. It was obvious that whatever Darya was hiding, it involved Brody somehow. Or more specifically, it involved Tatyana. When Darya finally looked up she looked terrified, but Brody had no idea why. "He said things."

"What things?" She asked, but somehow she thought she already knew what was coming. Sometimes it was plain to see what was going on in Darya's mind, and other times it was more difficult. This was one of the times in the middle, where she really wasn't sure what was in the woman's mind, but she could put in a damn good guess. It became more obvious when Darya looked away and blushed.

"He said he slept with you." She eventually managed to get out, and there was an instant feeling of bugs crawling all over Brody's skin and a shiver up her back. The whole idea was disgusting, and she refused to even think about it. For some reason though, she'd known that's what it was going to be, that or something similar. Even if it wasn't true, she knew it was gonna be that. At least it was something she could easily defend.

"With me!?" She just had to repeat that as scandalised as she possibly could be. She refused to even pretend that she didn't think that was terrible, and she also wasn't going to pretend like she'd have sex on this assignment with someone other than Gibbs. Technically she wasn't even supposed to do that, but that ship had long since sailed. "No, like I told you before, I love my husband." She could now say even that was the truth, since in a way she did love Gibbs.

"You can love your husband and still sleep with Lugo." Darya once again looked completely broken by the situation she was stuck in. That's when Brody realised that, right now, Darya was probably speaking from personal experience. It was likely that she had loved her fiance, possibly more than she now loved Lugo. But circumstance had been especially horrible to her, and that made her life hard. "Especially if it would have made your husband happy." That was an odd sentiment, and Brody didn't entirely understand it. No matter the business that might come with working with Lugovic Kovtun, she didn't imagine any of them being happy at their wives sleeping with. Regardless, she was never going to sleep with him, there was no need for Darya to be worried on that front.

It was certainly a kink in her plan though, and that was going to make it difficult or her to think of ways around it. Maybe the best way would be to be honest. "I never slept with Lugo, Darya." She reached forward and took Darya's hand and hoped the other woman would look at her. That would be the easiest way for her to show that nothing would ever convince her to sleep with her boyfriend. Tatyana was happy, and she wasn't the type of girl who would sleep with someone just to get ahead. "Sander would never be happy knowing another man got what he has. I know that."

"Women don't often say no to Lugo. He is a powerful man, he can make someone's life hard, or easy." She'd heard that about Kovtun more than once since they'd arrived here, it seemed the entire city was connected to him one way or another, and she didn't completely understand how or why. As Darya spoke, Brody realised that Kovtun probably had his share of admirers. "You wouldn't be the first." Darya whispered again and frowned. That was almost enough to break Brody's heart.

"I'm not one at all. He assaulted me, Darya." She decided to be upfront about that too. Darya deserved to know what her boyfriend was like. Chances were that she already knew, but Brody wanted to make sure, and would describe it in detail to make her see. That was what was needed in this situation, she was sure of that. "He had my hands pinned against the wall. We both know he would have taken what he wanted by force if Sander hadn't arrived."

"You have never slept with someone just to make life easier?" Darya asked, looking up and suddenly looking less afraid and more like a child, someone who was maybe a little too innocent to be allowed out on their own. Brody wondered, not for the first time, how Darya had gotten to this point in her life and still be as naive as she was. It was a mystery, that was certain.

"I come from a rural town, Darya. Nobody got ahead there unless they were lucky, like I was when I met Sander." She smiled a little and shook her head. That was a piece of total acting, but she really wanted to sell it. There were reasons that all the recruits were given acting lessons, Brody was realising that this was probably the situation they envisioned when they gave it.

"He wants you, Ana." Darya sighed after a few seconds, and it took Brody a couple more before she realised exactly what she meant. She thought she was prepared for whatever Darya said next, but it turned out that her next statement was not something that anyone in the world could prepare for. "Lugo talks about what he'd like to do to you. It's not always sane, and I don't think he would care about consent."

"I already know he doesn't care about consent." She muttered quietly, not sure if Darya was in a position to hear her. There were a lot of things that it seemed Darya didn't have a good experience of, and relationships were definitely one of them. "Darya, I'm many things... but I would never cheat on my husband. I love him more than anything in the world, and whole idea is abhorrent." She continued, and that was also true. She and Gibbs weren't necessarily in a relationship, but she couldn't imagine sleeping with anyone else right now.

"Even if Lugo gave you money, you wouldn't?" Darya pressed, but Brody didn't even have to think. Especially if someone tried to pay her for sex. She wasn't really interested in selling herself, and she definitely wasn't interested in letting Lugo pay her to sleep with him. It was always nice when she could answer something completely truthfully.

"No, I don't sell myself, for anything." Brody shook her head, trying to say that as forcefully as she could. That way, if Darya took the answer back to Kovtun, he'd know that she wasn't going to be bought, and she wouldn't go down without a fight. There were plenty of women in this city, she didn't understand what it was about her that had caused Kovtun to grab on to her so tightly.

It seemed as though Darya didn't necessarily agree. Maybe it wasn't her morals, or maybe it was just that she and Darya came from totally different backgrounds, or maybe it was just the totally different circumstances they were in, but Darya seemed shocked that Tatyana was where she was. "You are a better woman than me. Lugo has made me do it, sometimes."

That revelation made Brody pause for a moment, and she shook her head and took a deep breath, refusing to speak for a moment until she got over her instinctual revulsion at that idea. "That's awful, Darya." She ended up whispering, just shaking her head. It was just something that disgusted her to her very core. "You should have left him a long time ago."

"Like I told you. I can't leave him. I need more from him than he demands from me." Darya was clearly dependent on Kovtun far more than just the reasons she was saying. It was obviously that Darya was thinking about what life would be like, especially with the next comment she uttered. "Tatyana, you seem like you have a good man. One who wouldn't put hands on you unless you wanted him to. Keep him."

"Always intend to." Brody couldn't explain why that advice made her almost want to cry. Maybe it was because she knew that, in reality, she and Gibbs would never have a chance. That was the truth of the matter. She knew that already, but it really stung sometimes. She'd fallen for him, and that was going to be terrible when this assignment was all over, because they'd have to adjust to the real world again. "He's the best thing that ever happened to me." She couldn't help but smile thinking about that.

"Speaking of Sander, he just walked in." Darya pointed over Brody's shoulder with a smiled, she turned round and smiled seeing him, giving him a little wave. It was clear he was here for a completely different reason, but she was glad he'd run into them. This was one of her favourite views of the city, and she hadn't managed to show him it yet. "Hello Sander."

"Hello, Darya." Gibbs said, looking between the two of them with a smile. Brody couldn't help but grin at him as he came up behind her and kissed her head. "Hey you, my beautiful wife." He whispered in her ear, and she felt her cheeks redden as she started to blush. Generally he didn't say things like that, in private or public, but today it seemed he was feeling affectionate.

"I must go. I will not listen to Lugo if he says those things again. I trust you more than him on this." Darya stood up and smiled at them as Gibbs slipped into the chair next to her. She smiled a little looking up at Darya, glad that she was choosing to believe her. Maybe that was another part of Darya's psyche. She'd never been shown much kindness, so clearly she was somewhat latching on to Brody, which could be good, and bad. "Thanks you, for being my friend."

"What was that about?" Gibbs asked, looking at her clearly slightly worried. She looked around then out the window, trying to think of a way to phrase it that wouldn't piss either of them off. She wasn't sure she would succeed, but it was definitely worth the try. She was pretty sure that either way he was gonna end up pissed off. So it was going to be easier to bite the bullet and just say it simply.

"Lugo told her I slept with him." She eventually sighed and shook her head looking at him. She just wanted to get this out and let Gibbs either yell or get over it. In this situation she was never really sure which one it was. Watching his face she saw it turn from shock to simple surprise to worry to anger.

The longer she watched, the more she worried about Gibbs' reaction. His frown just grew, and she knew he wasn't exactly happy about anything. "He assaulted you less than a month ago, and tells his girlfriend you slept with him." For some reason she smiled again looking at him. It was nice to know he was so angry on her behalf, but the truth was that knowing he was that supportive helped her feel a little less worried about his reaction. She did need to make sure that he didn't kill Kovtun. That would really ruin their case.

"Don't start, it will just make it all worse." She said, taking his hand again and squeezing it. As she looked at him she realised that he was really angry, still, about Kovtun's assault on her. Looking up Brody spotted Darya buying something new, and that was what got her thinking, she leant in to Gibbs and put her head on his shoulder then frowned. "What is she going to think when all this ends, she's going to hate me." She muttered then looked away again, back out the window.

"It's part of this, you knew that going in." She hear whispered in her ear as Gibbs wrapped his arms around her, kissing her temple as he did. She wanted to smile a little, to be happy that they might be able to solve this, but she just felt like whatever happened Darya was going to be another victim, and a victim that would never be able to get justice.

"I know, but I genuinely like her." It was true. Brody just liked the woman. It was never easy to get friendly with people undercover, but this was what she'd done. She knew that part of the job was getting these people locked up, but she didn't think that woould be fair on Darya. "She's been handed a raw deal, and I just really want to help her. It isn't her fault this is all she's ever known."

"Maybe you could write up in your reports that she deserves protection, not prosecution." Gibbs theorised, and she just looked at him for a few minutes thinking, then sat nodding. He was right, she could do that. That was something she could do to help her new found friend. "Have her settled somewhere in the US."

"Think that would work?" She was, of course, just a little pessimistic. It felt like she needed to be. If she wasn't things tended to not go as planned. She held Gibbs close and smiled a little.

"You can try." He replied simply and took hold of her hand, pulling her to her feet. She held his hand tightly and sighed. She knew that he was right, and that she might not be able to protect Darya, not completely. She was going to hope though, and she hoped that one way or another she'd be able to make sure the woman was able to stand on her own two feet. She deserved that, and she deserved to be helped the way she would help any victim. Thinking of Darya as a victim made all of this better, and she hoped she could make others see her that way.


	14. Paranoia and Suspicion

**Sorry for the fic dump but I want to get this out of the way. I'm going to post 5 more tomorrow. Within a few days I'm going to be posting a new NOLA fic, but it's one I'm working on... so it won't be too fast.  
-Shin**

* * *

It seemed like Gibbs had said one of three things today, and nearly all of them were just him being paranoid. He didn't really have a reason to be, but he also wasn't giving up on it. The truth was that she knew that some of it, at least, was to do with what Gibbs was expecting of this. "I don't like it." He commented again, and it took everything not to knock his head against the headboard. Right now, he was really hyped up about whatever was on his mind, and there was no chance that he was going to let it go. He was far too stubborn for that.

"You said that." She replied sarcastically, carrying on reading her book. She felt like letting him rant and rave was probably a better idea, because it meant that he wasn't going to be trying to worry other people. Namely their police handlers, who weren't quite as used to the moods that Gibbs went through when he was overthinking things. Her job right now was to calm him down again.

"He's still storing those stuffed bears in there." Gibbs complained, and she had to try and think of the simultaneously most annoying thing she could say, and the most ridiculous thing, because that would distract him almost immediately, and he could go on being confused about her thoughts. So she decided to focus on the fact the teddies were creepy, as he thought they were just weird.

"They are pretty terrifying." Seemed like it was the only thing she could say that would work for exactly what she wanted. Almost immediately Gibbs started looking at her incredulously, clearly completely confused. After a few seconds he clearly realised what she was trying to do, and it was not amusing him. She hadn't thought that it would, but she could have always hoped.

"Will you take me seriously?" He complained a second later, and she shook her head a little bit. Of course he was going to try and convince her, but she really wasn't going to fall for it, not this time at least. She'd listened to him for almost everything, but she knew more than he did about this, so he wouldn't win her over.

"Nope." She said simply, kissing his cheek softly before going back to her book. Brody knew that wasn't going to stop him, but apparently her confidence knocked him back for just a few seconds. That was enough time for her to think of exactly how she was going to phrase what she needed to say.

"Why not?" He asked, sounding a little hurt by it. She felt a little bad, for just a moment, that he wasn't really believing her that something was going on. Maybe it was her training when she was a probie in Detroit, or maybe it was the fact that Darya had said things about how little Kovtun trusted anyone. A combination of things told her that Gibbs was just off on this one.

"Because you're being paranoid." Brody replied again, this time putting her book down and rolling over to face him. Maybe she needed to tell him exactly what was going on, or at least, her interpretation of what was going on. It wasn't the easiest thing to say, and that was why she'd hoped that he wouldn't get into this state, because now it meant that he was going to need to know. As she watched him he sagged back on to the bed and frowned.

"It's been a month, Merri." He sighed after another few minutes and laid back again. She just shook her head and put her hand on his stomach, stroking softly. The fact he was keeping a track of how long it had been made her realise that he probably kept track of everything like that. The longer they laid there the more agitated Gibbs seemed to be getting, and while she didn't entirely blame him, she also knew that this wasn't going to help anyone at all. "A month where absolutely nothing has changed." He sighed, and she just looked at him for a moment longer.

"I know that. But he needs to trust us, he doesn't yet." She started, shaking her head as he sighed. She knew that she needed to convince Gibbs that waiting it out and not panicking was the only way they could do this. The truth was she knew that Gibbs would hold it together publicly, but she'd kill him if he continued worrying about it here.

It was clear that Gibbs knew that his obsession was bothering her, but at least he seemed to be listening to him more. "What makes you think he doesn't?" He asked, and as soon as he asked he got a look on her face that told her he figured it out almost immediately how and why she knew more on this issue than she'd let him know about before. "Darya said something, didn't she?"

"She may have mentioned it in passing." She tried to play it off. It wasn't going to work very well with barely giving him any information. She used to hate when people only gave her half the story. But it seemed like the easiest way to make it drawn out, and start making Gibbs have to actually pay attention to what she was saying.

"Meredith." He ended up complaining looking at her. She suddenly knew that it wasn't going to be anywhere near enough to stop him from overthinking everything. Maybe she needed to just tell him what was happening, or, she was going to continue just distracting him, trying to do something different, or just annoying him into rethinking everything.

"I'm amused that you use my name when we're alone in here." Once upon a time, even in private he'd use her undercover name, but here in bed he tended to call her Meredith. Which made her feel closer to him, but at the same time it made something that she could use to distract him. He again just ended up staring at her for a few minutes longer, and then shook his head, clearly just staying totally wound up about everything now.

"Stop changing the subject." He told her, sitting up a little more, and she just stayed laid on her stomach looking up at him. The truth was that she just didn't know what else to do. At this point she was going to have to actually start telling him exactly what she knew, and how she knew it. That wasn't entirely what she wanted to do, because right now she was still trying to distract him, but he wasn't going to let it work.

"Darya said that it normally takes a few weeks for him to trust someone enough." That was one part of what Darya had said when they'd spoken about it. The other part had been the one thing that she wasn't willing to do, and Darya really didn't want her to do. She was going to tell him that though, because she knew it was definitely something he deserved to know, before someone else implied it. "She said it's only faster when the girls do something I'm not willing to do." She actually shuddered at the entire image. It wasn't just something that she was unwilling to do, but it was also something that she didn't think would help them.

"Really?" Gibbs asked, clearly thinking about one part of that. She was just going to stare at him until he realised exactly what he'd said. Apparently her lengthy silence made him look down at her, and then he chuckled a little. Which actually just made her glare at him a little more. "To him taking weeks, not to you not doing it. You're right to not do that." He smiled a little at her and clearly felt a little bad about what he'd implied.

"Oh, I sometimes do it a lot, just only with people I choose." She smirked, implying exactly what she probably shouldn't be implying. It was the complete truth though. She had always been open to it with the people she liked, and those she let in. People like Kovtun though, they were never going to get a look in.

"I'm special then?" He asked after a few seconds, and she chuckled a little bit. Playing over the previous night, and the things they'd done before he'd got this back into his head this morning. He was very special. The first 'special' person she'd had for a while, because it just hadn't been a priority for a long time. Getting to this point in her career had been. Now that she was here, she couldn't imagine it being any other way.

"A little bit." She laughed and shook her head, then leant up and kissed him hard. She had known this conversation was coming, but she still hadn't really wanted to have it. It just felt like sometimes talking about Kovtun's weird rules were making their jobs more difficult, rather than easier. She wanted to try and take things on the nose, as that would be how they remained fluid in any situation. "Don't worry too much, we'll get there."

He slid down the bed again, coming to settle by her side again. "How do you know?" He asked after a few seconds of silence. She knew that he was trying not to worry, trying to see this from her point of view. Where she wasn't afraid of anything, where she wasn't constantly overthinking their case. Maybe this wasn't the easiest way for her to run this, but it seemed to be working, so far at least.

"I just believe it." She answered, and that was her genuine answer. She had a good feeling about this. She believed that, eventually, they would have some kind of a breakthrough, and Kovtun would start trusting them more. It was just going to take a lot of time, and even more patience. "Have some faith."

"That is not the best way of doing these assignments." Gibbs responded a little harshly, and she just shook her head watching him. The fact they did things so differently was part of how this had clicked into place so quickly. The fact they were compatible was why they were able to sell it. So while it maybe wasn't the best way, it was something.

"I know that, but it's the way I do it." She replied eventually and just shrugged a little more. It was simple for her, to decide that she was just going to believe that things worked, and then if they did work, it was better for her. If they didn't work, she had nobody to blame but herself. After a few seconds Gibbs reached over and gently stroked her cheek, giving her a smile.

"You're still young." Was his only explanation, and rather than actually make her feel any better about this, it made her feel worse. Yes, she was, but that didn't mean she was wrong, and it certainly didn't mean that he could do this assignment without her. They were both needed for this. Her being young shouldn't matter.

"You attribute everything to me being young." She complained and shook her head, shaking his hand off her cheek. Maybe that was a little petty, and maybe she should take a moment and breathe before she made things worse, but the truth was that Gibbs telling her that her style was because she was wrong didn't put her in a better mood.

"Sometimes that's the way it is." He commented, and shook his head, instead laying his hand on the bed where she could decide what to do. After another second he smiled and looked at her, trying to catch her attention. "I'm glad that they teamed me up with you though, and that you bring your enthusiasm to this." He stroked her arm as she moved it closer, and a lot of her annoyance evaporated. There was no reason being stubborn over this, of all things. "All of this."

"That almost sounded like a compliment." Brody teased softly. It was much easier to make those statements almost into a joke in this situation, not because she didn't believe him, she did. But just because she knew in herself that she would end up getting attached to him, and there was no way that this relationship would work in their real lives. Even if they both wished it would. There was too much between them to make it possible.

"Maybe that was a compliment." Gibbs smirked, and she realised that even though he knew what she was doing, and why she was doing it, he wasn't going to make it easy for her. He never did if he could help it. She knew that was partly his way of teasing her back, but sometimes she wished he'd let it lie. For now though, she was going to take this happiness while she could have it. They should live in the present, that was the important thing.

So instead of pulling away, like she'd originally intended. She moved a little closer to him. Taking a long, deep breath and smiling. Thinking about all of the compliments he'd been giving her lately. Clearly he was getting comfortable with this situation too. "Someone's getting sloppy."

"I don't care." He laughed after a few minutes and shook his head. That was when she saw his mind flip back to the one thing that he was obsessing over. Just when she thought she'd gotten it out of his head. Maybe she had been being far too optimistic. "You have to admit, it's a bit strange. Paying for the warehouse and using it for something cheap?"

"Lugo doesn't seem like the most normal of guys Jethro. This could be his MO." She shook her head again, thinking about what they knew about their target, about his business. They had used guesswork for the brief, but they hadn't known the man. This was probably all a part of it, and they needed to accept that. "The truth is that we really don't know enough about his early recruitment practices to know what's normal."

"How did you get to know so much?" He asked her after watching her for a few moments. She'd never really been comfortable under his stare like that. Not because she had something to hide, but just because she felt like those blue eyes could see right through her, and that idea had always terrified her. No matter who was the owner of the eyes. As for how she knew so much, it was partially him, teaching her how to get to know witnesses.

"You." She decided to answer simply, and he turned those eyes on her again. It just made her think about what she had learnt, and how she'd learnt it. It was nice, at least, to be able to tell him that what he was trying to show her wasn't completely going in one ear and out the other. Which even she had to admit it would have been easy to do. She liked listening to him though, and things always seemed to stick with her. "I listened when you were trying to teach me things."

"I'm flattered." His voice dropped a little, and it was barely more than a whisper, but she knew that was because he hadn't been sure of how much he was showing her. She knew that even senior agents sometimes struggled to make things make sense, and struggled with their own abilities and confidence. It was a fact of life, and they couldn't stop.

"I'm sure." She laughed and smiled softly. It was obvious that he wasn't really surprised that she'd learnt from him, but he wanted to get her to say it regardless. She grinned as he leant over and kissed her hard. It was easy, to pretend that things here were normal, but since they had nothing to do today other than be alone, so spending time the two of them seemed to be on the cards. She wasn't going to complain at that.


	15. Interrogation

Today had been the first day Brody had felt like going out for a run. Spring had finally sprung in Greater Manchester, and she'd chosen to go out to the city limits and back while Gibbs had been at his fake work. She'd enjoyed running through, listening to music on her iPod. She didn't have to pretend to be solely undercover. Doing this, alone, meant that she could be herself too. It had just been too cold for her to run until recently, and now it was warm enough, she felt able to deal with it all a little more. She was halfway along Deansgate, nearly back at the apartment when her battery ran out, and as she was stood taking it off she heard a car pull up and a window roll down. "Ana. Get in the car."

"I'd rather not, thanks." She replied, turning and seeing Lugo Kovtun leaning out the window toward her. There were plenty of issues here, least of which were that she was still uncomfortable at the thought of being alone with him. It had been six weeks since the attempted assault, and while Ana seemed to be over it, and not caring at all any longer, Brody wasn't so sanguine. It was still a huge issue for her.

"We'll take you home." Kovtun offered, sounding a little more angry this time. Whether he was angry because she'd seen through him or angry because she refused him she wasn't entirely certain. All she knew was that it wasn't really going to matter entirely one way or the other if she got in the car. She just wanted to make it home, herself, and then she could deal with any potential fallout from Kovtun.

"It's right around the corner, I'm fine, thank you." She tried to decline politely, to minimise any issues he could have, but it didn't entirely seem to matter. The more she stepped away, the angrier the face in the window got. It wasn't the most comforting of places to be, stood in front of someone you knew to be a criminal, willingly making him angry. It was something she had to do though, she had to keep a hold of her professionalism, otherwise this could be all over.

"Don't make me angry, Ana." Kovtun threatened a minute later, and she heard other doors, but she wasn't sure if they were from Kovtun's car or others that were parked up or constantly moving along the busiest street in Manchester. Sometimes, being in the busy area was a godsend, others, like this, it was as much a curse as a blessing. She had nowhere she could escape to, and nowhere she could hide.

"Lugo, just let me be." She started, talking a little louder. All she was hoping for was someone to pay attention to her. Someone to notice that this wasn't right. But as was typical in big cities, nobody looked twice. She was speaking another language, and wasn't showing obvious distress. Nobody was going to help, so she needed to stand up for herself somehow. "I already told you I'm not interested."

The next thing she knew she was bundled into the car, a hand clamped over her eyes, and another over her mouth. When she bit the person holding her, she felt a sudden, sharp pain in the back of her skull. She went to sit up again, but felt the same pain again a second time. After a second she realised the world was fading, and darkness fell around her.

When she awoke, she didn't know where she was or what had happened. Now she had a blindfold clearly taped over her face, but everything else seemed intact. Given that the last thing she remembered had been talking to Kovtun, that hadn't been a guarantee. She knew that the things she needed were there, but that didn't actually make her feel better. As she felt the ground in front of her she found a plastic water bottle and opened it, giving it a sniff. She was very thirsty, and probably needed the hydration.

She drained the bottle as quickly as she could, not wanting to risk it being taken away from her, then she started slowly exploring the floor of the area around her. It seemed like it was loose soil, with the occasional harder bits of ground, some of it feeling wetter, as if water had spilled there recently. When her fingers found grass she wondered for a moment if she was outside, but the echoing her small movements were making made her think otherwise.

Another few movements and her knees were almost yanked from under her as the rope that was tying them clearly reached its limits. She fell to her stomach and let out a sharp grunt as she felt the pain in her stomach. It certainly wasn't the best time for that to happen, as the dry heaving that followed made her breathe heavier, alerting anyone around her that she was fully conscious, and her movements had been purposeful.

She crawled back to the water bottle and started in another direction. This time her head came gently against corrugated metal, probably steel. She let that sink in for a few moments, realising the likelihood was that she was in a barn or another warehouse. One that wasn't as well maintained as most of the ones she'd seen so far. This place wasn't far from agricultural land, she thought.

Suddenly she realised that the recall of information was becoming far more complicated. She was struggling to separate where she was right now and where she had been before. This felt different, but she couldn't explain how. ' _Mind altering agents, date rape drugs_ ' she thought to herself with a moment of panic, then willed herself inward. She'd trained for this, and knew that if she tried to focus, she wouldn't give anything away.

After a few moments she felt herself being pulled back by the ropes around her feet, and then she was hoisted into the air, hung by her wrists. She didn't know how high up she was being held, but her feet were well off the floor. There was a soft Russian voice speaking, not one that she immediately recognised. For some reason that bothered her more than almost anything else.

"You should speak now, Tatyana Volkov." It said, softly sinister and she just closed her mouth. She didn't want to give anything away. The voice didn't sound at all familiar, but given Kovtun's network, there was a probability that she'd never met this one, or if she had, that he'd never spoken in her presence. Or maybe she just didn't remember. That seemed like it was a very good chance right now too. "Speak, tell us your secrets."

"Of." She managed to spit out after a few more seconds. Focusing everything she had on breathing, staying in control. Staying Tatyana Volkov. That was the important thing right now. She stay with the backstory she'd been given, as best she could. Thankfully, fail safes were always built in to these things. If she could just hold on to that, even as the world around her went fuzzy.

"Your family?" She heard, then a moment later felt a hard impact of something against her side. The combination was both utter agony and soft. It didn't feel like it should have been as painful as it was. With the blindfold over her eyes she didn't know what it was, and the images coming to her mind weren't helping. Between the almost silence of the weapon and the cover of her clothes she couldn't guess. "Tell us of your family."

"I don't have one, only Sander." She spluttered, only then realising how hard speaking had become. Clearly whatever had hit her had done instant damage. Between the pain and her loosening grip on herself, she just hoped that she didn't put herself or Gibbs in any danger. No. Aleksander Volkov. That was his name. Not Gibbs. That was another life.

"You spoke of a sister once." The voice continued, it was still as soft as it had been before, but this time there was a threat of violence that had been followed up on. That made it harder for her to think of anything but the moment. Once again her real life and her made up life swam through her head, and she needed to work out which one to say. The one which wasn't true.

"Dead. All dead." She hoped that she sounded appropriately distressed, but what she noticed most of all was how weak her voice sounded. It was certainly going to help the image of her being emotional, as it was just too hard for her to get the words out coherently. "All of them." She continued, trying to sound a little stronger, but not sure that worked either.

"Speak the truth, Ana." She heard the voice moving around her slowly and quietly. It was just a constant, low noise. Everything was crashing together in her mind, and trying to stay conscious now was becoming a struggle. She was going to keep going though. Suddenly, another collision of the unknown weapon happened, and the air was knocked out of her again, wrenching her shoulders slightly out of place.

"I am, moron." Was the only response she could give, the truth was still merely a concept to her right now. A multiple choice question she needed to get right, because otherwise she was dead, and he was dead, and this mission was over. No arrests, nothing. Just over, with two dead agents to show for it.

"We can't find you?" Came the voice again, accompanied by another blow, this one hitting her stomach. She felt the impact, and she felt the accompanying agony, but at the same time her mind disconnected the pain. She could try and purely focus on the words. The things that might get her out of this alive, and would assure that Gibbs would make it home alive.

"I don't know my real name." She muttered, it sounded much more slurred this time, even though she was trying to speak as clearly as she possibly could. Not being able to see anything was actually making it even harder for her to focus and answer. She thought again another moment, then continued with the answer she'd started. "I never knew it."

"Where are you from?" Another question, and this time it only echoed around her skull, not around the entire building. That made it easier and harder to think of an answer, but maybe it would now be easier to play on her confusion, make it seem like it was too hard for her to answer anything.

"You know where, I told you." She mumbled then, purposefully she swallowed and groaned a little, the pain in her chest choosing that moment to remind her it was still there. "Revda" She said a little louder and more clearly. Where she'd always said that she was from. At least in this fake lifestyle.

More questions followed, but she just ended up trailing off and mumbling. She no longer had control of all of her muscles. That was good, as now it felt as though she couldn't tell what was real and what was a lie. What was Meredith Brody and what was Tatyana Volkov. Nothing seemed to be making sense any more, all she knew was fog and pain.

Seconds or hours later she felt herself being lifted down, unceremoniously dumped in a pile on the floor. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak. All that happened was she let out another breath of air as her body hit the floor. She could hear other voices now, not just the one speaking to her through this interrogation. Another one that she recognised, this time sounding more cold than she'd heard him before. More clinical. More like the mob boss she'd expected when she was given this assignment.

"She seems to be exactly who she says she is. She's too gone now." The soft voice that had been interrogating her was louder now. It seemed like he was also less in control. Little did he know that despite the drugs used on her and the damage inflicted, Brody had been in control the whole time. At least it seemed that she'd fooled him, as she listened to what he said next, trying to take it in. "Nobody would be able to drink what she did and still be able to lie."

"Damn, that means she's telling the truth." She heard Kovtun speak, and somehow she'd known he was still involved with this. The questioning had been too specific for it not to have been. It suddenly made her wonder why this was important to him. Clearly, something was a problem. Again the world went out of focus, but returned momentarily, in time for her to hear the next thing Kovtun said. "I was sure, she and her husband would be the spies."

"I would look for your older associates, maybe they are getting tired." As for what that meant, Brody could only guess. Her mind wasn't good at decoding things at this moment. The longer she laid there, on the cold floor, the longer she had to learn about other things that were going on in this situation.

"Then they will die." He said simply, and Brody was sure the body count would grow. Only now did it occur to her that she probably wouldn't remember this conversation anyway, as the drugs that had made it into her system would likely obliterate any memory she had, and anything that had been said to her since she arrived.

"What should we do with her?" Another voice asked, this one gruffer, and clearly not Russian. There was no way to narrow it further than that, not as she was right now. She just knew that it wasn't going to work if she continued to push her mind. Nothing was making sense now. She was trying, but it wouldn't slide into place.

"Take her to her home. Leave her on the step, her husband will find her." The cold, unemotional response there made her want to shudder, but there was no control left, and there was rapidly no sense left. She wasn't certain, now, of what she was hearing. She was hearing everything and nothing, and none of it seemed to be making sense.

"She could die before then." That was something she'd heard before. Or did she just hear it echoing. She could died, she had died, it all seemed to be so meaningless. Was she ever alive to begin with? Maybe she was imagination. She was too confused to know.

"Not my concern. It will not be traced to me if she does." She heard a pair of shoes turn away, and Kovtun's voice faded. She was left with two people, and she had no idea who they were. One was softer, checking her pulse and eventually taking off the blindfold. But now Brody was too tired to think, and too out of it to say anything. Instead she just focused on the fact she was alive, and allowed the darkness to claim her once more.


	16. Consciousness

Brody had been uncomfortable and in pain for a while. Everything had been dark and silent, but after a little while all of a sudden sounds started coming back to her. First they were disembodied, quiet noises. Things that didn't make any sense. Nothing seemed to be joining up or making sense. The longer she laid there and listened, the more everything started to connect, and the more sense she could make out of what was being said to her. "What do you think, should we call it off then?" Was the first full sentence she remembered hearing. It didn't make any sense still to her though. She needed to figure that out, though, to make it all make sense.

"Do you think anyone else would do this?" She heard, and this voice she recognised. It was nice to hear Gibbs there, and to hear him talking as angry and hurt as he was. It was clear right now that he was worried about her. She kept still with her eyes closed, trying to figure things out. "She's got internal injuries, she could have died." That was not something she really needed to hear. She clearly hadn't died.

"I'm aware of that, but she didn't. You have to make this decision." Came the other voice, and Brody laid there, trying to work out who it was speaking with Gibbs. Not many people knew who they were, or the mission they were on. So she was probably with the police here. She sounded familiar, but Brody couldn't remember the name. "If she'd given anything away you'd know by now. Men like Kovtun wouldn't leave you both alive." That was something else she didn't feel like she needed to have heard, not right now, anyway.

"Given the amount of rohypnol in her blood stream we may never know what she told them." Gibbs sounded a little softer, and a moment later she felt his fingers gently on her cheek. She focused on the feel of his fingers, letting that be the way for her to focus again. She was still drugged but she really wanted to just be back in the world. She was fed up, and she really just wanted to wake up and leave.

"Think about your entire career, have you ever known someone like Kovtun let someone he has proof of being an informant live this long?" That was a good question, one that she could answer. She knew she'd done the right thing, because she'd be dead now otherwise. Clearly he had managed to convince them that they were legitimate.

"It's only been a few hours." He argued, and Brody fought the urge to just sit up and smack him round the back of his head. It would be the easiest way to convince him that right now that he was being far too cautious. That was definitely the problem, because if it had been longer and they were killed it would be easy to trace back.

"That's long enough." The other voice argued, and for another moment Brody fought the urge to get up and agree. That wouldn't have helped her that much, and of course, that would probably have led to them realising that she was awake, which it was maybe time for. "I get it, you get close when you're on missions like this, and you come to depend on each other more than any other people would ever have to. But if she doesn't wake up soon you may need to make the choice for you both." That was a cue, she felt, to open her eyes and let everyone know she was awake.

"I'm already awake." She mumbled then opened her eyes, feeling Gibbs' hand stop moving on her cheek. The sharp intake of breath, however, was clearly not his, and maybe they hadn't been thinking that she'd be too far gone still, for now, to be able to answer any of the situations that had come up because of Kovtun and his actions toward her in the last 24 hours.

"I'll be back in a minute." Came the voice Brody hadn't quite been able to recognise. Even with her eyes open, she still didn't quite know who it was. She felt like she probably should know, but the simple fact was that she didn't. All she knew was that this person knew almost all the details, and it was safe to tell her what she knew. "I'll go inform everyone of the developments."

She blinked a few times once the other one had left then looked at Gibbs, trying to piece together her broken memories and everything else that was bugging her. Nothing had come together for her. She remembered so much, but the order it was in she didn't know. Asking how she got where she was was probably a start, as it wasn't anything like where she last remembered. "What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell us." Gibbs said quietly, and she started trying to focus, recalling her memories but trying to focus on a sound or a smell. Anything that would help her figure out where she'd been kept and what Kovtun had been planning with her, if he'd even has a plan at all.

"Last I remember was a warehouse... out near some water." She'd remembered that the water hadn't sounded like it was totally open, which meant that being somewhere near the old docks had been more than just possible, she was almost cheerful when she said to him that she may have known where she was. It helped her feel a little more in control of what had happened to her. "Maybe near the Quays?"

"In Salford?" He asked after a few minutes, clearly after figuring out exactly where she meant. As far as she was aware, there weren't any other Quays around here. He then clearly carried on thinking, and she couldn't completely blame him. "With who."

"I never saw anyone." She shook her head and mimed covering her eyes. Though she had good guesses about how had been there, she couldn't be certain that she was right." Eventually maybe she'd find out, but not now. It seemed that after a minute of seeing her miming Gibbs realised what she was trying to say.

"You had something on your eyes. We know." He sounded like he'd just asked a particularly stupid question. She reached up and stroked his cheek, just smiling at him softly. She was just happy to be alive, and surprisingly. She was guessing that she was on a good amount of painkillers for that. "Do you remember anything?"

"Not really. It's all fuzzy." She closed her eyes again, trying to focus on the night before. It was even harder than she'd thought, and she'd been trying since she'd come round, but eventually she was going to remember something, surely. But right now it was like static in her head, and she just couldn't remember. She knew there were things going on, but she didn't know what it was. "Everything is fuzzy."

"I'm sure." He nodded after a few seconds, then leant down to kiss her. She kissed him back then nodded a little, biting her lip as she smiled. It was overwhelming that she'd had to go through this at all, but she had been warned that this happened from time to time on assignments like this. Gibbs must have seen something in her face, as he stroked her cheek softly trying to bring her back. "Don't push it, Meredith." He whispered and held her hand softly as the local cop came back into the room.

"Alright, now it really is up to the two of you." Were the first words out of her mouth as she came back to stand beside the bed. Brody knew there was something they were supposed to be talking about, but she didn't remember exactly what that was right now. Maybe sometimes she was a little fuzzy, or at least she was when trying to remember anything, though it was slowly coming back to her.

"What is?" She gave up trying to work it out. All she could really do was ask. it was at that point that Gibbs looked at her concerned, and the local just looked like she was fed up. Brody could understand that, as she had seen other assignments go south like this. They weren't meant to, but sometimes they did.

Gibbs however clearly decided to talk about it again with her. He held her hand tightly and looked at her seriously. "Blackley wants to know if we want to go back to the US?" she stopped and just looked between them for a minute, trying to think what that meant. She hadn't dealt with all this to just give up and go home.

"Stop the case?" She asked quietly and shook her head. That would be the only thing that could happen if they went home. Nobody else could get in, and nobody else would get to this point. Everyone needed this assignment to be a success, not least of all the people who had been hurt by Kovtun.

"You've been badly hurt." Blackley said, looking back at her with a frown. It was obvious what she thought, but at the same time Brody knew that it was up to her and Gibbs. Thinking about it, she already knew what she wanted, and all of it was because she wanted to put this guy away. She wanted to put him in prison, on whichever side of the Atlantic she could. That was all she really wanted.

"Yeah, and I did that to make sure we weren't caught." Seemingly realising that no matter what she did, Blackley wasn't going to convince Brody that giving up was at all possible. yes, she may have been trying to help, but it wasn't something that was going to scare her away. She wanted to catch this guy. "The bits I remember are fuzzy, and they are confused, but even though I was drugged with something..."

"Rohypnol." Gibbs interrupted her and shook his head. That came so out of the blue she just ended up staring at him for a few seconds. It wasn't adding up in her mind, and maybe that was again because she was still suffering with the effects of what had happened. He looked more and more concerned as she just tried to wrap her head around it.

"What?" She wasn't really able to focus on it as much as she wanted to, but clearly he was answering what she'd said. She just didn't understand. The worst thing in the world for Brody was feeling that she wasn't in control, and that she was unable to shake it right now. At least she was with people she trusted.

"You were drugged with Rohypnol." Gibbs continued, and she frowned a little as she should have guessed that. She knew, at least, that she'd been drugged with something. As for what it was, she just felt better knowing. It also explained why some things were still fuzzy right now. She'd get to go home soon.

"Yeah, that makes sense." She nodded slowly and thought for a few minutes about the assignment. The truth was that she really couldn't imagine giving up and the only thing that she could think of as a reason for why they wouldn't continue would be if she'd given something away, but she knew that she hadn't. She knew that, with no doubt in her mind. "I didn't tell them anything. I managed to lie, even though I was drugged and sick. It was hard, but I did it. We have to finish this case."

"Meredith." Gibbs said quietly, taking hold of her hand again. It was clear that he was trying to see exactly why she wanted to continue. She just looked up at him and shook her head. They both knew what needed to be done, and they both knew what wasn't the easiest was probably the best.

"We need to finish it for Darya, and for all the other innocents." That was everything she wanted. The more that she looked, the more that she was sure that he was going to say the same as her. It was going to take him a few minutes, she was sure of that. But no matter what she wanted to continue, as long as she possibly could. "We have to." That was when she pushed, because they knew that they needed to do.

"Alright, You heard the lady." He didn't try to talk her out of it, and he didn't try to argue. He knew she'd made the decision, and clearly at that point he knew that he wasn't going to talk her out of it. Which meant he was going to stay too. "We're going to see this case through, until we're done, or just sent home." She smiled at that, because that would be the only time the two of them would stop.

Blackley was clearly looking a little uncomfortable, and maybe she thought they were making the wrong decision. But it really was their decision. She knew that it was not going to be the easiest thing to come back from herself, but she trusted those around her, and she just looked at Blackley while the other woman thought. "You think you can do that, both of you?"

"If she can go on with it, so can I." Gibbs backed her up automatically, and that made her feel a lot better. He didn't hesitate, and he just deferred to her judgment. Would he have wanted to do something differently? She didn't think so. It wasn't like him to give up, and it also wasn't like him to stop something important just because there had been a scare..

"Right, I'll put that all into motion then." Blackley went to the door again, looking more than a little concerned about them. But at least she was deferring to their judgment, just like Brody had assumed she would. It's not always something that could be depended on, but for the most part, Blackley seemed to be good as a liaison. "Be careful taking her home."

"I'm careful taking her anywhere." She watched as Gibbs smiled at Blackley as she left, then turned back to her and just looked more concerned. It was not great that they were here, but she had survived. She also now knew that they would be through to Kovtun's trusted circle now. Clearly Gibbs knew that too, but he was just more concerned about her, which was alright. "You good?"

"I'm OK. Just tired, things are still fuzzy." She smiled and leant over to kiss him again, because she felt like that was all she had left. She hated that she was still feeling very blank. It was just hard for her right now, and she was trying to work it out. Maybe, getting back to their apartment, she would feel better. She wanted to go home. "When can I go home."

"In a few hours, they need to do some checks then we'll go home, via that ice-cream place you like." The smile on his face told her that he'd been planning to take her there when she woke up. That was definitely something for her, and she really did love that stuff. So it was amusing to her that Gibbs had picked that as a way to get her out.

"You spoiling me?" She teased softly, just stroking his cheek as she looked at him. Now she just wanted to try and get home, and get them to start doing something else. She wanted to start closing this case. Then she could go home.

"You deserve it. You did good." He kissed her forehead, holding her tightly and smiling. She was glad, in reality, to have made it. Last things that she could remember definitely made her survival more difficult that she would have though. She felt sore, but not as sore as she had thought that she would be. Right now, in reality, everything hurt to the point where it was easy to ignore absolutely everything. She just wanted to get this to finish, because that was going to be the easiest way to get back at Kovtun.


	17. The Next Step

It had been three days since Kovtun's team had taken her, and she hadn't really left the apartment. She was still in too much pain, but slowly and surely she was getting there. Today Darya had come over, but unlike how she usually was, she was somewhat withdrawn, and Brody couldn't help but wonder why. Right now she was going to try and figure it out, because she needed to. "You're quiet?" She asked after a few minutes, looking over at Darya as she did. There was never really a reason for Darya to be quiet, so the concern was immediate.

"I am thinking." Darya eventually said, after pausing for a while. It was obvious that she still didn't really want to talk about whatever was in her mind. That also didn't surprise her. Especially if Darya did actually know about what Kovtun had done to her. Actually, Brody was going to put money on that Darya did know exactly what had gone on.

"Oh?" She prompted, hoping that Darya might say something, anything about what had gone on. She shouldn't push it, but she was going to. It was going to be easier to guess that Darya knew, and act like Brody knew she knew. At least the confusion was sliding now, she remembered everything.

"Have they caught who attacked you?" The question came again quietly a few minutes later. She knew that there was going to be a thing about this, and the fact that Darya was being so worried. Sometimes, Brody hated that she knew when someone was lying to her, and at the same time she was sure that Darya knew, so she was going to keep it up.

"No, and we both know they won't." That was her only statement, and the momentary surprise on her face was what told Brody that she was right. Darya had known it was Kovtun. Maybe that's why Darya had avoided her for the last three days. She knew Gibbs had seen Kovtun a couple of times, but Darya had kept her distance.

"What do you mean?" Darya asked, while she was trying to look innocent, it was obvious that she wasn't at all innocent. She knew exactly what that meant because no matter how good Darya was at lying, she wasn't good enough to convince Brody that she was totally innocent. Especially not like this.

"You know as well as I do that it was one of Lugo's people who took me." She shook her head and frowned, because she really hated that she was so suspicious. Or at least, that it only came across as suspicious. She knew for a fact, that wasn't entirely a suspicion. Darya just looked uncomfortable, and Brody couldn't entirely blame her for that either. Knowing that someone knew your big secret couldn't be easy.

"Yes." Darya nodded eventually. It hadn't taken anywhere near as long as she'd expected to get her to admit it. It seemed, looking at her, that she had just wanted to admit that she knew what had happened. What the meant Brody didn't know yet, but she could guess at it. The worst thing about it was that Brody was certain that Darya would help, if she wasn't terrified of her boyfriend. At least she'd said she was there.

"At least you're honest about it." She muttered, because it was not fair that she knew and didn't say anything. Especially when it was obvious that Brody had really needed help to find out who it was who had taken her, and at the same time wanted to know what was going on with Kovtun. That was something that was going to matter to her no matter the situation. Figuring out who had taken him.

"I told him not too, that he should trust you and Sander." Darya said quietly, looking down at the floor. Maybe that was why it was awkward for her, probably, because she wanted to not think about it. All of a sudden it made even more sense, maybe Darya was afraid of losing one of the only friends she had outside of Kovtun's group.

But there were still a lot of things that hadn't been explained, and there were a lot of questions that she needed answered really. "He didn't though, and he could have killed me." She wanted to stress that, as she was very lucky to be alive. Mostly it was because of the fact she'd been left at home. If she'd been left anywhere else she probably would have died. Right now though, she was just glad that everything was OK.

"I tried to get him to stop." Darya said quietly, and Brody looked at her again. It was worrying, sometimes that she was learning to read these people so well. It made her nervous, and she really hated that this was something she needed to do. But if Darya could give her any information then it was definitely something important. If not for the case then for Brody personally. "When you started mumbling and couldn't answer properly. Then I tried to get him to take you to the hospital."

"It didn't work, and I was dumped for Sander to find." She actually hated that Gibbs had had to find her the way she was. She knew that he was afraid, and when they'd gotten to the hospital he thought he was going to lose her, and he was going to have to explain to NCIS and to her family what had happened.

"Do you hate me now?" Darya asked quietly, looking at the floor. Brody looked at the older woman and just shook her head. Feeling pretty terrible that Darya was this worried and afraid given that it wasn't really her fault. Since it was her boyfriend who had done all the awful things, not her.

"No. It's not your fault your boyfriend is a psychopath." She shook her head, because the truth was that it wasn't Darya's fault that, for some unknown reason, she was in a terrible relationship with a horrible person. Brody wasn't going to blame her for any of that, and she also wasn't going to hate her for doing what she needed to do to survive. At the same time, she was now healing, and was going to be OK. "My body is healing, slowly."

"I thought he killed you." Darya muttered, and after a few seconds she started looking up at Brody. All of a sudden it was clear that it was what she was afraid of, and that meant that she just needed some handholding. Brody could, at least, do that. Especially since she really didn't want Darya to feel guilty for something she had no control over.

"So did I, and so did Sander, for a while." She chuckled a little and shook her head. Everyone, pretty much, thought that she was dead or going to die for a while. It was not too hard to have imagined either. Once she was in the hospital though, it was fine, and she was recovering nicely.

"He thought he killed you too, but he was happy about it." Darya looked slightly disgusted, and it was only then that Brody realised Darya may actually be coming around to their side. She was pretty certain that, if she put her mind to it, she'd be able to convince Darya to testify against Kovtun when it came to a court case. As Brody watched her, she started looking up and thinking out loud toward Brody. "I was not happy about it. You are my friend."

"Thanks Darya." She smiled, and almost immediately she heard the door open and close, which meant that Gibbs was back. Shouting him would tell him to come in carefully, so she yelled before he said anything. "Hey Sander." She used his undercover name, maybe then he'd be certain not to say anything. Which was going to keep them safe again.

"Hey." Gibbs said coming in, looking between the two of them. He looked confused, and seemed really surprised that anyone was there other than her. Maybe because she'd been avoiding people. She just smiled at him and nodded, trying to tell without words that everything was OK, and that Darya wasn't a problem.

Seeing Gibbs there, it was an immediate change and she suddenly seemed so much more closed off. "I will leave, and we will talk another day about things." Darya said standing up. She seemed a lot more uncomfortable as soon as someone else was in the room, or at this point maybe she just wasn't comfortable to be around other men. Given what Kovtun seemed to be like, it wasn't surprising that she didn't want to put anyone in danger from her boyfriend. "It was nice to see you Sander."

"You too Darya." He said politely, and all of a sudden that was when she realised that Gibbs really didn't trust Darya at the moment. She just narrowed her eyes at him until Darya was out the door, and he went to lock it after her. Then, all of a sudden, he just came over and shook his head, looking worried again. "What was she doing here?"

"Guilt." Was her only immediate answer. Probably, the truth was that Darya had just wanted to check in with her, and that was part of it. At least now she could explain to him what she'd learnt, that Darya had seen everything that had happened to her, and that she hadn't been able to say anything to stop it. "She was in the warehouse three days go." She said simply, and shrugged a little.

"Not unexpected. Whatever you did there worked though." Gibbs said and that just made her narrow her eyes a little confused for a moment. He seemed excited though, so she guessed that it was a good think. After a minute longer he came over and slid onto the sofa. "Kovtun transferred some product into the warehouse today. We've got him." He smiled, and as she thought about it she realised exactly how much that actually did matter. It meant that their assignment was not a waste. They still needed to get him on some things though.

"Only on half the charges." She started chewing on her lip as she thought about everything they were trying to discover. Brody knew that that wasn't enough for everything, they could now prove that he was supplying, but they couldn't prove that he was connected to the navy, British or American. Not yet. "We still need to prove he's supplying the navy."

"That's what we're doing." He pushed on and smiled at her again, clearly he understood what was worrying her, and she was sure that he could also understand that she was gonna have to focus on that. "The case isn't over, but we've got him for something, possibly more. That's a reason to celebrate, right?" He sounded so hopeful, and she just couldn't shoot him down after that.

"Definitely. I like this being a reason to celebrate." She smiled, then leant over after a few seconds and just kissed him gently. After a second it started getting a little deeper, a little more intense, but after a second she just grunted and pulled back, knowing that this was not the way they should celebrate. Not just yet, at least. She had a plan.

"You feeling good?" He asked, looking at her with concern, and she had to think of a way to phrase how she was feeling that wouldn't worry him or make him think she needed checking over again. She really didn't need that, and it wasn't entirely helpful to him either. She was beginning to feel better, but she wasn't sure he needed to know that she still felt pretty terrible.

"I'm feeling fine, just tired for the most part." That was the easiest way to explain it, and it was also true. She was pretty much consistently tired right now, but that was definitely the easiest way to stop him worrying too. Unsurprisingly, she was also in pain, which was less likely to stop him worrying, but she might as well tell him too. "Ribs hurt if I move too far."

Gibbs just grinned a little then kissed her softly again, making sure that she was paying attention to him. "Then don't, let me do all the moving." He smirked a little watching her, and she just shook her head and laughed a little. Somewhat annoyingly, she was certain he was either going to play innocent or try to tease her, and she'd need to try and roll either way.

"That sounds vaguely suggestive." She teased, deciding to start it off instead. Because it was going to be so much easier than waiting for him to decide which way he was going to go. The only thing that really happened was that he started to grin a little wider. That made her laugh as well.

"Unintentional, I assure you." He said, and actually managed to sound a little innocent. The one thing Brody wondered more than anything else was how Gibbs managed to sound as innocent as he did when he said something like that. It was pretty much the hardest thing for her to work out, and she was really good at playing innocent in general.

"I bet it was." She continued teasing and just shook her head and laughed. That was when her stomach rumbled, and she started to think about something else. Mostly what she wanted to eat, because annoying Gibbs into getting food would definitely help her. "I'll think about it, maybe after a pizza." She suggested, but she hoped that it would be obvious that it wasn't a suggestion.

"You're obsessed with pizza." Gibbs laughed after a few minutes and shook his head. She couldn't help but join him laughing and poked his side gently. Maybe she had requested pizza a lot recently, but it wasn't really an obsession. She just really liked pizza, and couldn't eat her favourite food here.

"I can't get up to the place in China Town." There was a pause while Gibbs clearly worked out exactly where she meant, and why she couldn't get up there. The steps would be too painful right now, and she'd end up too exhausted to eat anyway. So pizza was a very good choice in it's place.

"Fine, you win." Gibbs laughed and shook his head. She knew exactly what she wanted, and she was pretty sure that she could convince Gibbs to actually do it. Especially when it came to pizza, as no matter how much he was complaining, she knew that he also really liked to have pizza. She just kept smiling at him, and after a few seconds he grinned at her then agreed. "I'll get pizza."

"Thank you." She smirked and kissed him softly as he stood up. She really was looking forward to maybe a night the two of them celebrating, but she also really wanted pizza. it wasn't uncommon, and it also wasn't even a surprise, she was sure of that too. Her love of pizza had been rekindled, somehow, on this mission. What better way was there to celebrate a job well done than pizza, wine and sex? She was definitely happy with that. They would soon be able to take the bastard down, and he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again, that was the important thing.


	18. Third Chance

Brody was not quite used to being out in the world again. It'd been nearly two weeks since she'd been questioned, and though she was fully healed, she wasn't entirely comfortable around people. Especially not knowing that Kovtun was still in the same city. She needed to get him out of the city, or get herself out of the city. Though she had come to like it here. As they were walking along Market Street, she heard another shout. "Sander, my friend." They both stopped, and all of a sudden they were confronted with Kovtun, and she felt Gibbs' arm tighten around her. "Hello there, Tatyana." He then directed to her, and she involuntarily shivered, though she was certain that nobody but Gibbs would know.

"What can I do for you, Lugo?" Gibbs said a few minutes later. That was when she looked up at him, and saw the minute set of his jaw. It was obvious that he wasn't at all impressed by the fact that Kovtun had managed to surprise them, again. As they waited for him to catch up to them properly they looked at each other and frowned a little. "Do you need something?"

"I am having a party tonight, you both must come." Kovtun said, looking jovial. That was when she realised that he was not going to let them avoid him. Or let her avoid him. That was all she'd been doing since her day at the mercy of Kovtun's creeps. Gibbs kept hold of her tight, stroking her side gently as she did.

"We're going to stay at home, I think." Gibbs started, letting Brody just stay completely silent. She really wasn't in the mood to even try and speak to him. She tried looking around, to focus on absolutely anything that wasn't this situation, or what she was going to have to go through later. That was not what she needed to be thinking about.

"No, you must come. I have some businessmen you need to meet." They looked at each other and shook her head. She really didn't want to go, but she knew at this point that they needed to go. Gibbs looked as unimpressed as she did, and that was the worst point. She knew neither of them wanted a party, but it wasn't going to matter, they were going to have to go. "I will see you there. 7pm." Kovtun then turned away and walked off, leaving them alone.

"That was not what I wanted to do. I'm so tempted to tell Darya we're trying for a baby so they'll leave us alone every so often." She laughed a little, then looked up at Gibbs and actually started laughing even harder. He looked slightly horrified at that idea, but also just a little curious about it. She wasn't sure that was actually going to help her, but it was just hysterically funny to her. "I won't, but I am tempted."

"Would you want kids?" He ended up asking, watching her as they both started walking back toward their apartment. She didn't know how she felt about the idea of kids, with anyone. Let alone with Gibbs. This certainly wasn't serious enough for her to have been thinking about that. Kids were a long way off for her, no matter the situation, and she didn't think this was a good time for her to be talking about how she felt about kids.

"So not the time for that discussion." She shook her head, and as she looked at him she saw a second of disappointment. That was not great, and she really hated when anyone gave her that look, for whatever reason. "One day maybe." She added quietly as they crossed over Deansgate.

"Good." He admitted, and then she shook her head. It was easy enough to please some people. That was when she started laughing, walking up to the apartment, jogging up the steps and laughing just a little as she heard Gibbs follow her, laughing along with him. "I suppose we should start getting ready to go out." He mumbled, and all she could do was shrug and shake her head.

A few hours later they'd been sitting around Kovtun's party, they were working exactly as they needed, and talking to all the people that Kovtun wanted them too. She just really needed to get out of the way, and have a few minutes alone. She hid away a little, and that was the wrong thing to do, it seemed. "I'm glad to find you alone." She heard coming up behind her, and she realised that Kovtun had come in and shut the door. Some cop she was, she hadn't even noticed the door opening.

She shook her head and groaned a little, hoping that he didn't get too close. She knew that that hope was far too much. "You need to get away from me." She muttered almost as soon as she knew exactly where Kovtun was. That was the worst feeling, she could track him, follow him, but right now she couldn't stop him really, not yet. "Do you think I don't know it was you who had me questioned last week? Because I do." She argued, because she didn't really want to let him get away with it all.

"You can't prove it." He argued, and she just ended up shaking her head. Maybe she couldn't, in fact she definitely couldn't, but she still knew it was him and she needed to say it. Maybe it wasn't going to be the easiest situation, and she knew that Kovtun wasn't going to leave her alone now, but she still needed to say it.

"Maybe not, but I still know it and I'm still never gonna do what you want me too." She told him, because she knew what he wanted. She wasn't going to have sex with him, not willingly. That probably wasn't going to help her, because when a guy like Kovtun decided what he wanted, he would make it happen.

"Why not?" He asked, moving close to her. She was far too panicked to think straight, so she was going to think truthfully, and not try to embellish too much. There was no shame in saying that she was afraid, and that she didn't really like Kovtun, it just wasn't what he'd expected her to say, she was sure of that.

"Because I don't like you like that. You've caused me way more pain than anyone else in my world the last few weeks." It seemed easy enough to say it like it genuinely was. That Kovtun was making things much more difficult for her, and for Gibbs. It was at that moment that she felt his hand on her arm. She shook him off and tried to move away, but he grabbed her and, once again, pinned her to a wall. "So get the hell off me."

"I told you that you were gonna do this for me." He whispered almost in her ear. At that point she knew that he was going to make her if it was the last thing he did. She was once again slammed against the wall, though this time she didn't hit her head. That actually made it all harder to deal with, and she hated the fact that she was here.

"I'm not doing it." She kept fighting, struggling. This time she wasn't going to just let him go. She was going to continue to keep things going, and at the same time she was going to try to be loud. If Brody made enough noise, maybe someone would come in. She hoped it was the right person though, otherwise Kovtun wouldn't be the only one. "Get the hell off me."

"Lugo, what are you doing?" She eventually heard. The sound of the voice made them both stop for a few seconds, then she realised exactly who had spoken. It was definitely Darya, and that was hopefully going to save her. Would Kovtun continue trying to do what he was doing knowing that his girlfriend was stood right here.

"Nothing." She felt him jump back and let go of her hands. She stumbled to the side and tried to stay away from him, and it was that moment that she realised he was still staying near her, and she felt his hand slowly make its way to her hip. "You know how I want her, you should leave, Darya." Brody was pretty certain that telling his girlfriend that he wanted to attack another woman was not the way for Kovtun to win anyone over.

"No, she is married and happy. You leave her alone." Darya threatened, and that definitely helped, as the hand dropped away from her hip. Brody looked up and saw the look that Darya was giving Kovtun, and she was certain that he would leave her now. "This is the only way that you can have her, and even you know that is wrong." Darya seemed confident, and then she looked to Brody and nodded softly. "Tatyana, go back to Sander."

There was a problem with that, in the Brody didn't really want to leave the other woman alone with Kovtun, especially given that he had just been deprived of what he really wanted, and was probably not feeling very good about anything here. "Darya." She cautioned, really not wanting him to be left alone with her.

"I'll be OK, Ana." Darya nodded, then pointed to her phone. Brody just nodded after a second, and then Darya said the words that finally made her decide to leave. "I'll call you tonight." She said, and eventually Brody just turned around and started looking for Gibbs. She did, actually, really want to leave. She wanted to go home and shower for as long as she possibly could. When she saw Gibbs she waved to him, and a moment later he stood up and walked over to her.

"We have to go." She whispered quietly, desperately wanting to let him know that she wasn't joking around. Gibbs studied her face for a moment, and clearly knew that something was going on, and that she really needed for him to listen to her and take her home. She just needed to escape, just take Darya's advice and leave.

"Why, what happened?" Gibbs asked, and he suddenly looked a little worried and started looking all around her. She knew that it wasn't going to be completely obvious, this time, that anything had happened. She wasn't hurt, and she didn't have any issues. She was just shaking.

"It happened again. Come on." She looked at him and nodded, shaking her head just a little. At least with what they were talking about this morning, they had a reason. She had brought it up as a reason for them to leave if they needed to.. "Use the reason we were talking about before, it's believable at least." She thought about it for a second then stepped onto her tiptoes and kissed him deeply, deciding that putting on a show would help their cover story.

"Now it is." He smirked a little and nodded, then kissed her again before turning back to the group of people he'd been sat with. She didn't hear what they asked him, but she definitely heard his explanation of why he needed to leave. It seemed like he was trying to say it loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. Which normally would embarrass her, but today it didn't so much. "Sorry friends, my wife wants to leave. We're trying for a baby." He smirked, and she just nodded and smiled, looking around and blushing a little when she saw how many people were looking at her after that.

"Good luck, Sander." She heard someone reply sarcastically, and all she could do was smirk a little. She understood that everyone around was interested in everything that they were trying. Almost immediately Gibbs was back around her, and wrapped his arm around her back. She leant in to him and smiled just a little, letting him lead her away. They passed Kovtun and Darya as they left, they were not looking anywhere near as happy as Brody and Gibbs were at the very least pretending to be.

As soon as they were away from the door, as soon as they were nowhere near Kovtun's apartment he pulled her aside and looked her over again. She just shook her head and sighed then looked at him. "He tried to get you again?" Gibbs asked, and almost immediately she knew that he was already sure of what she'd had done to her, again. Hopefully it wouldn't be that obvious to too many people. She hoped not, at least. She didn't think that she did a bad job hiding it from most people.

"Against a wall, this time Darya walked in." The last thing she wanted was to admit that this had nearly happened again, especially given how he was still guilty about the first time. She really wasn't happy about any of this, and she hated that she was the main target. But at least now she knew, and she was going to have to focus on that now, the things that she could do to protect herself. "I'm not gonna be anywhere near him alone again. Nowhere."

"I'll make sure of that, I promise you." He frowned a little then stepped up to her and pulled her into his arms. She melted into his chest and just held him close. It just gave her a few seconds to figure everything out. She knew she was still shaking, and she was pretty sure that Gibbs could feel that has he held her. "You won't be alone again."

"Don't make it too obvious though." Brody nodded, because while she desperately wanted protection, she also wanted to make sure that Kovtun didn't think anything of it. She could make sure things were alright again for them both, so that Kovtun wouldn't think that anything was weird.

"Believe it or not, I've done something like this before." He muttered and wrapped his arm around her back. She felt better now he was holding her, and it really helped that he was, quite clearly, looking around them for anyone who needed to be there. "You'll be OK. I promise you that too." Gibbs said softly, then kissed her temple.

"I know." She nodded, and wrapped her arms around him again and kissed him once more, then let him start pulling her toward the parking lot. It was harder than she would have expected to let this all go, but she knew that she needed to. Unsurprisingly, she had expected that Kovtun would have tried again, but she hadn't thought it would be so blazingly obvious. Gibbs was clearly worried about her now, but she already knew what she needed, and that wasn't it. She needed to get this over with.


	19. Stalled

Quiet days in the apartment were becoming less and less common. Either she was out working on the wives and similar from Kovtun's group, or he was working on one of the other things that would work toward the end of the case. As it was, the two of them were sat, half asleep, curled up together on the sofa. She was not really paying attention to anything until there was a knock at the door. She looked up at Gibbs and frowned a little, not expecting anyone to be there. "Are we expecting someone today?" She asked, hearing the knock repeat a little more forcefully.

"I don't think so. Kovtun and Darya are in London, right?" Gibbs asked, and she thought back to the conversation three days ago. Apparently, Kovtun had taken Darya away to the capital, trying to fix their relationship a little. Brody wasn't sure that it was ever gonna work out, given that it was obvious they did not fit together, not even a little.

"That's what she said on the phone after the party." She whispered, still thinking her way through it all. There were a lot of things that could be going wrong at this point, and every single one of them would include Kovtun realising that they weren't exactly who they claimed to be. Which really wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"OK, I'll get the door." Gibbs said eventually, as the knocking started for a third time. Whoever was at the door was impatient, and that meant that they knew they were in. It was probably someone from GMP. As soon as she heard the door open she knew she was right. DI Blackley wore a particular perfume, and it was obvious that she was in the door. "Hey, come in." She heard, and almost immediately the smell got stronger as Blackley walked into the apartment.

"Thanks." She heard and a second later she saw Blackley as she walked into the living room. "Hey there." Blackley smiled and nodded, looking down at Brody, who was still curled up on the sofa. A second later she felt Gibbs' arm around her shoulder and looked up as he sat beside her.

"I didn't think we had a briefing today." Brody said, she skipped the pleasantries, deciding that it would be best for everyone involved if they all just got down to it. The truth was that making sure nothing was going wrong was important. She wanted to know exactly what was happening. Especially given that Blackley had never turned up unplanned before.

"It wasn't scheduled, but I was sent to talk to you." Blackley looked a little uncomfortable, and maybe she just wasn't sure what she was doing, or why she was having to do it. Blackley clearly didn't want to do it fast though, as the next question was, definitely, not to do with why she was here. She knew that it wasn't a secret that she had recovered, so asking it seemed to be useless. "How are you feeling?"

"Fully healed, only took three weeks." She sighed, playing along. She knew that Blackley was going to be still asking, right up until the point there was an answer. Brody could tell she was stalling for time, and that made her wonder what this meeting was actually all about. "I was getting a little fed up." She shrugged and shook her head.

"I bet." Blackley nodded, and Brody felt Gibbs' hand stroking her shoulder. He was staying remarkably silent. She wasn't entirely used to him sitting there silently and not saying a word, but he was probably as curious as she was about why Blackley was here, and what on Earth could be happening to them here. "You had any more difficulty with him?" That was a difficult question to answer, so she looked at Gibbs while she thought about it, and then just answered as calmly and honestly as she could.

"Nothing that he hadn't tried before." She ended up admitting. It was harder to keep what was going on between her and Kovtun quiet when she was being mistreated by him so regularly. She was not happy about it, but it kept happening, and that was hard to deal with. Gibbs once against squeezed her softly, and that gave her a little more confidence to tell Blackley that everything was fine, and to pretend like she didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it. "It's easy enough to be forgotten."

Blackley looked at her again and slowly nodded after a few seconds. "I would say that's good, but given what he's done to you before, I don't think that's the appropriate response." Knowing what had happened that she and Gibbs had decided not to report to GMP, Blackley was definitely there on 'good' being the wrong term.

"Not really, no." She shook her head, only really able to agree with Blackley on that. 'Good' was not even close to something that she would use to describe anything involved in this situation. Least of all the things that Kovtun seemed to want to do. She was still counting herself as being lucky that so many people were present when she was drugged. That had kept her safer.

"Why you here Nadine?" Gibbs was clearly impatient now, and that didn't entirely surprise Brody at all. She was actually more surprised that Gibbs had been as quiet as he had been for some time. He would have normally been so much more pushy, but maybe he'd decided to let Brody think, and talk about everything else that was going on in this situation.

"We're considering shutting down the operation?" Blackley said simply, and all of a sudden Brody understood exactly why she'd been stalling. Why she hadn't wanted to start talking about tangential circumstances of the case and everything else that had come up, but not the reason she was there that day.

"We?" Brody had to ask. Was it Blackley? Was it her bosses? Was it NCIS or the various involved governments. She didn't know, and she wasn't sure she really wanted to. The problem was that they would actually need to know, to be able to defend why they should be allowed to continue. It would be different for everyone.

"Greater Manchester Police, and West Yorkshire Police." Blackley admitted a little while later. For some reason, Brody wasn't really sure what to do if they were both wanting to end it. All she knew was that, right now, she really didn't need for them to end. They could actually get things worked out very soon, and it all over with before too much more time had passed.

"Why?" Gibbs was the one who got the question out first this time. She could tell that he was as shocked as she was that the two police forces they were working with were considering ending this investigation. Sure, Lugo Kovtun was going to be convicted in the UK, and he was going to have to spend time in prison. But they weren't done. They weren't even close to done. Not really.

"We have enough to convict him here, I know you need more to get him for your cases, and while NCIS is footing most of the bill, the leg work is done by GMP." For some reason, Brody couldn't help but think that, for the large part, that was an excuse. Nobody really wanted them to end for that reason, especially when the assignment was being almost completely bankrolled by NCIS. So all of a sudden, she knew this was about something different. "It's a lot of manpower."

"We're close to a breakthrough Nadine." Brody ended up arguing, they all knew how close they were to the end of this case, she was almost certain that they were going to have a result as soon as possible. Looking at Gibbs, it was clear that he agreed with her. He knew they were going to have someone through soon. Something. It was going to be done, she was just sure of it. "We can do this, we can get him on the whole thing. We're days from a break. I can feel it." Maybe that wasn't the best way for her to feel about it, but she did.

It was clear that Blackley wasn't buying it, not entirely at least. But given that she was as close to the case as anyone, it meant that she knew that they were close. Wasn't she really helping them to work all of this out, to catch Kovtun. That was definitely not a good sign, especially watching her shake her head at them. "Brody, I wish it was that simple."

"It is though, the decision hasn't been made yet, right?" She pressed, looking at Gibbs again. He'd fallen silent, but the two of them were almost completely in agreement, she was sure of that. He looked so thoughtful, and it made her think that he was trying to get everything worked out and figured out. Meaning that they'd be able to continue going on.

"It hasn't, they wanted me to talk to the two of you first. See how you two felt about it." Blackley looked between the two of them, and it was obvious that she had known exactly how they'd take this. Brody looked up and shook her head a little, but Blackley continued talking, trying to make them feel as though they were at least included. It wasn't really working, at least not for Brody, she still felt like this was going to run them down. "What you both feel does actually matter to our leaders."

"The truth is, I'm certain that we're going to be able to do this. We're so close." Gibbs looked at Blackley after the first time in a while. He had obviously been thinking, she was totally right with that, but now he needed to help her convince Blackley that they could finish it all, that they could do it all. That wasn't the simple, and she honestly hated that they were in this situation, having to defend the job they were doing. Then, Gibbs managed to make her do a double take. "Brody thinks she could get the girlfriend to flip."

"I thought we weren't going down that route?" She asked, remembering that Gibbs had shot down that idea the first time she mentioned it. Because he hadn't thought that it would be worth trying to flip Darya. It was working, she knew that, but Gibbs hadn't wanted to actively pursue it, and it wasn't the way this case was meant to go. Originally, they were meant to capture Darya as well, but that probably wasn't going to happen.

"It's an avenue we can try if time isn't on our side." Gibbs said looking at her again, and she shook her head. Maybe he was right, maybe he could do something that would help her pull Darya out, or maybe Kovtun would do something that would officially push Darya too far. He seemed now to be convincing her more than he was convincing Blackley. "She's pissed at Kovtun, you saw that before I did." He argued again, and the problem with that argument was all she could do was nod and agree.

"Can you do it?" Blackley asked after a few silent minutes. Brody had been thinking about the friendship she'd cultivated with Darya, and that made her worry just a little that things weren't going entirely as she planned. She was fairly certain that things weren't going to work that way, but she would try if that was how they thought they should go.

"Flip her? I'm pretty sure I can." She admitted, because it would definitely happen. Darya was going to be pretty easy to flip if Brody worked on her properly. It would be something very different, but at least she'd be able to help Darya, and help put Kovtun behind bars, where he belonged. "She's fed up, and I honestly think that she's beginning to get really over the whole situation that Kovtun keeps putting her in."

Blackley sighed after a few moments, and she just sighed. Clearly, Brody and Gibbs had managed to win her over, and convince her that this case was worth continuing. Maybe she wasn't so sure that that they'd complete it, but she was willing to let them try. "I'll convince them to keep it running another month, but I think after that it will be time." Blackley was only giving them a month. Just one month. That didn't seem like it would be anywhere near long enough. "I won't be able to keep things going after that."

"We can get this finished in a month." Gibbs nodded, then looked at Brody and squeezed her shoulder. Maybe he was convinced, but Brody wasn't so sure. One month seemed a short time for something they hadn't been able to complete in five. They'd been working on this for five months, and maybe if they got that elusive breakthrough it'd be OK. Right now though it wasn't. Gibbs, however, was confident. "We'll get him, on every charge."

"Good, you better Gibbs. I'm putting a lot of faith in you." Blackley started walking back toward the front door, and it was obvious that she was again done with speaking now she'd finished her point. That bluntness made her feel better at times, but it didn't always work great. However, Blackley was not going to stop any longer than she needed to.

"Thanks, Nadine." She shouted as Blackley made it to the door, and a second later she heard it slam. She flinched a little then just looked at him and shrugged. It really wasn't the situation she'd been expecting today, and she hadn't expected to have to try and defend everything that she'd been doing. At least they'd managed that. As they sat there she felt Gibbs' arm slide behind her again and pull her in to him.

"What do you think?" He asked in the end, then stood up and started to pace a little. She watched him as he walked back and forth in front of her. and she could tell that he was feeling more than a little restless at the thought they had so little time. Yeah, she got that he had been acting confident to Blackley, but she had hoped he had actually believed it. It would have been easier.

"That was not the conversation I expected to be having today, are you sure we can do it?" She asked in the end, and while Gibbs may be restless and a little underconfident, she was certain that when asked straight he would know exactly what was necessary, and why he needed that confidence was obvious. It would make her feel better about it all.

"Yes, we can." He nodded and looked at her, then came and sat beside her. The truth was that things weren't going to matter if Blackley decided that they needed to go home. It would be pretty much useless, right now, for them to do that. Because if they didn't fix this all up, figure out exactly how Kovtun was sending things to the Navy, someone else would just take over until Kovtun was out of prison. That wasn't good enough. So Brody was going to do everything she could to make sure that didn't happen.


	20. Breakthrough

Brody was woken from a short nap on the sofa by an intense hammering on the door. She thought that she'd imagined it at first, until it started again. She then sat up and shook her head, trying to shake her tiredness off. It was annoying that she couldn't sleep, and then when she did fall asleep she was woken up. She walked to the door and opened it, but almost immediately knocked over by a clearly agitated Darya. "What's going on?" Brody asked, trying to stifle another yawn.

"Dmitri Polzin and Arkady Rostov have been taken." Darya almost wailed, and almost immediately collapsed onto the sofa where Brody had been sleeping five minutes earlier. Brody knew that Darya was somehow related to one of Kovtun's minor helpers, while Rostov was one of his big backers. So her level of surprise they were the ones whom Kovtun had taken anywhere.

"Where too?" She stifled another yawn and looked at Darya seriously. It was always so much harder when she felt like she was out of the loop. Maybe she should know, or maybe she didn't know as much about Kovtun's business as she'd been thinking. Darya jumped up again a second later and started pacing around.

"The warehouse." That was where Brody should have guessed, having been there herself. Though most of that was still blank, she was getting some memories back, but not many. Darya was still pacing around Brody's living room, agitated, afraid and worried. "Lugo thinks there are cops involved in the business, and that Dmitri and Arkady are the cops." That meant Lugo could be on to them, but hopefully not yet. They were so close to breaking this open.

"Why?" She asked, because at least if she could figure that out, she could work out a way to insulate herself and Gibbs a little more from everything that had happened, and everything that could buy them more time to finish their assignment. She hadn't fought so hard to be allowed to continue for it to be over a week later.

"Something about someone following him." Darya commented, and at least that meant that it wasn't actually them. She didn't know who was following him, but she knew it wasn't them or the local police. They didn't have anyone on his tail, not right now at least. That was a totally different thing, and maybe something they should look into, but at least it couldn't be traced back to them. "He claims that there is a person taking pictures wherever he goes."

"That's unusual. Is he sure?" She asked, continuing to play dumb about the whole situation, and acting as though she wasn't a cop. She would come clean, now or soon, so that Darya would know. But until she knew what was happening with Darya she wasn't going to say anything. One day, but not today.

"Yes." Darya shook her head and frowned a little more. As Brody watched her still pacing the room she noticed that Darya was chewing on her lip. That was normally a sign that Darya disagreed with her boyfriend but was far too afraid of him to actually disagree with him publicly. Given who Kovtun was, Brody didn't blame her. "Lugo is sure."

"You don't look sure, Darya." She commented, now absolutely certain that the two disagreed. Given the suspicion about one of the guys Kovtun was accusing, maybe Brody could accept that Darya was far more conscious of what he was doing, and this would probably be enough to push her over the edge.

"One of them is my brother. Half brother. My father's son." That explanation told Brody a lot. She'd known that Darya was related, but learning how was definitely something new, and it filled in a gap. "He is not a cop, but Lugo won't believe me. He says he knows better." Of course Kovtun wasn't going to believe anyone else, he'd probably decided he was right, so nobody else possibly could be.

The truth was though, that Darya probably had a better idea than Kovtun now. She wasn't as tunnelled, and she probably could understand more about the people whom he was accusing. "But you know better?" Brody just wanted to clarify, it was in her nature to double and triple check everything, just to make sure she knew it was right.

"He's my brother." Darya said as though that was the most obvious answer in the world, which made Brody think that Darya knew more than she let on. Suddenly, Darya stopped pacing and just stopped, looking at Brody thoughtfully. "Did you know your sister well?" She asked after a few seconds, and immediately Brody's mind was shot back to the US and wherever Emily was right now.

"Yeah, I did." She admitted, and probably in the same situation she'd be as convinced that Emily was innocent as Darya was. The truth was that Darya couldn't know for certain, and Brody definitely didn't, but she was willing to accept Darya's thoughts on this situation, and that gave her an idea, that could possibly help them bring this in. "Have you ever thought of telling the police what you know?"

"Why would I do that?" The look of confusion on her face made it obvious that she had never even considered doing that. Staring at her, Brody shrugged and tried to think of ways that she could make this sound appealing to Darya. At this point, even her undercover persona knew enough about Kovtun's illegal activities to know that Darya would be able to do more than just get him arrested, she could probably shut the whole operation down.

"To protect others." Brody thought, wondering if that would be enough. Darya had probably seen a lot of things, and she hadn't turned yet. Maybe she could push the brother angle harder, make it quite obvious that the only way now to save him would be to cooperate with the police and help them shut down Kovtun. "To protect your brother."

"Lugo would kill me." There was a note of panic in Darya's voice, and in reality she probably had a reason to be afraid. At the same time though, she didn't know exactly how much the authorities and governments of multiple companies wanted to have Kovtun in custody, she would be offered protection in all of them, she was certain.

"He wouldn't be able to. You would be protected and he would be in prison, more than likely." The issue now was that she couldn't actually say that she knew both of those things, because if she did she'd be outing herself, and while she was ready to help, outing herself wasn't something she wanted to do just yet. Until she knew it was over, she needed to stay here undercover. Darya, it seemed, needed to think about that, and she just went back to pacing.

"Would you turn on Sander?" She asked quietly a moment later, and again Brody had to sit and think of a way to phrase all of this properly. Telling too much would probably lead to Darya figuring out who they were, at the same time she really should say something, and try to push Darya into doing the right thing. Darya was fundamentally a good person, she'd just had a very hard life, and Brody did want to save her from that, much to Gibbs' annoyance.

"He doesn't do anything illegal, he never has." That was the easiest way to phrase it, though she was sure that like most agents he probably had done illegal things, and just been cleared of them. That wasn't unusual, and she was sure that eventually she'd face that. But for now, that wasn't going to help, so she would have to play it up a little more. "If he did, and he hurt me the way Lugo hurts you... I would do anything to get him away." That was another big thing. Kovtun was a bit of an asshole,

She shook her head and stopped pacing again, this time falling straight into the chair opposite where Brody was sitting and looked at her. "I'm scared though." She muttered almost silently, and it took Brody a moment to decipher exactly what she said, even though she'd already said it once.

"I'm sure that I can find someone for you to talk to. Someone for you to trust." Brody was already running through everyone she knew here who would be happy to help. That was really almost everyone that she knew. It would be better for her to do something now than let this continue. "It could help you Darya, I know you've been upset with Lugo's behaviour for awhile." That was another thing she could push. The fact that Kovtun was an asshole most of the time.

"What would I tell them?" Another quiet question, again almost whispered. The look on her face was terrified, and completely torn between what she should do, and what loyalty was telling her to do. Brody could understand that argument, and she understood that it couldn't at all be easy for Darya, but it certainly could be something that she ended up regretting if she made the wrong decision. As for what she should tell them, it wasn't a hard question, and it was something that Darya could do, no matter the situation.

"Everything." Brody replied simply, just watching her as she played with her nails. That was a nervous habit she hadn't noticed Darya display before, but this was probably the most stressful situation that Brody had ever seen her in. "You tell them everything, no limits. Let them know." She hoped that would be enough for them to put Kovtun away for forever.

"What if they want to arrest me?" This question was stronger, more confident, and Brody was pretty sure that Darya had now made her decision. If she hadn't she probably would have walked out by now to tell Kovtun absolutely everything that Brody had said. That would probably have ended everything, and Brody had really gambled pushing it.

"Make a deal, convince them that your information is worthwhile." Pushing at this point seemed like the best choice. Darya had decided, but she needed to be reassured that she was doing the right thing and that she would be able to be protected by the police if she were to testify. When everything was out, she would petition the British and American governments to keep her protected wherever she wanted to go.

"Will you be there?" She asked a little more concerned this time. Clearly, since Brody was the one who was pushing her into doing this, she wanted to make sure Brody stayed with her all the way along. That was completely understandable, and Brody didn't really mind staying with her.

"If I can be, of course." Brody nodded, reaching forward and taking Darya's hand, making sure that she knew that no matter what she had a friend. Eventually Brody was pretty certain that Darya wasn't going to really trust her, but for now she was going to make sure that Darya had support.

"Ana, are you a cop?" Darya asked, looking straight at her, and somehow that wasn't at all a surprising right now. Given that she was pushing all of this it would have been obvious that maybe she was a cop. She really wouldn't have blamed Darya if she was angry about it either, but right now it didn't seem like she was.

"No, I'm not. I just don't hate them the way a lot of people seem to, and I'm not afraid of them." She managed to make that sound convincing, she thought, but she wasn't entirely sure anyone would buy it really. There was one question that she really wanted to ask again, just to make sure. "Does Lugo think I'm a cop?"

Darya shrugged a little and looked at her then shook her head. "When he questioned you he thought you might be, but after that he was sure it wasn't you or Sander." Brody smiled at that. At least that meant that they were both doing well, and she had convinced people in the worst situation that she was alright. "You were too honest."

"That's good to know." She laughed in the end and shook her head, because at least she excelled at lying in this situation. After a few seconds she looked a little more serious, and tried to think about something else. There was one thing that they needed to know in this situation, and she wanted to make sure the way it was. "Do you trust me, Darya?"

"I do." Darya nodded after a few seconds and stopped playing with her nails. After a little while Darya took a few deep breaths then nodded. There was so much good that was going to come out of this, Brody already knew this, but it still required Darya to do a few things, and she really hoped that Darya could do it. "You're good at this, convincing people to do things."

"I can be. Tell Lugo nothing of this, and I'll help you." That really needed to be something that was implicit, as it was going to end with both of them not surviving the end of this mission, but she knew that Darya knew more than she let on, and that meant that she could definitely be invaluable. "Trust me." She smiled, and after a few more seconds Darya nodded. Brody hadn't expected to convince Darya this quickly, but it was the truth that Kovtun had been really making things hard for Darya as long as Brody had known her. So this was definitely a long time coming, and all she'd needed was someone to convince her it was the right thing to do.


	21. Busted

Dinner out had seemed like a great idea a few hours earlier. She'd been reading case files of other things Kovtun was likely associated with, while Gibbs had been doing whatever it was he did when he wasn't here. They'd had a few nights with nothing to do about the assignment, and it ended up being that they'd spent much of the last two evenings in bed, enjoying the time to be alone, especially now they both knew this assignment was coming to an end. As she was thinking about that, she wondered how Gibbs felt their chances were now. "What do you think, we only have three more weeks?"

"Do you think you got through to Darya?" He turned the question back on her, and really that was the main question right now. Gibbs had done all that he could. Kovtun clearly wasn't going to take him any further, and that meant that possibly getting through to Darya was all the hope they had left of getting him on all the charges. So Brody hoped that she'd actually got through to her.

"I think so, she agreed to keep what we discussed from Kovtun, at least." the truth was, Darya probably hadn't had chance to tell Kovtun, as the day she and Brody had spoken, she'd decided to go stay with her friend in Leeds. That was far enough away that she wouldn't be constantly having to dodge Kovtun's spies. "She's not been home for a couple of days either, she's been staying in Leeds."

"How do you know?" Gibbs just looked confused at the fact that she had that knowledge immediately. While she hadn't known anything about Darya's thoughts about leaving Kovtun at the time of their conversation, in the end it had only made sense that she wasn't really happy, and would probably have told him the plans, so leaving had been sensible.

"We text." She admitted just a little sheepishly. Telling Gibbs that she and Darya text each other had never seemed like a good idea. While it was part of her cover, and the messages were intercepted every time she sent or received one, it still felt like Gibbs probably wouldn't have thought what she was doing was a good idea. He was actually probably right too, only time would tell on that however.

"That would explain it." He smirked and took a few sips of his drink before looking at her again, and it was clear that he knew something that was making him smile. "You genuinely like her, don't you?" That was a little bit of an unusual question. Not what she would have thought, but she could understand it too. She didn't know if it was a problem, that she'd ended up deciding she liked Darya, but it probably was. She was a target too, and probably shouldn't have been thought of as more.

"I think she got a shit deal, and I want to help her if I can." That was basically the long and short of the situation. She knew that Darya wouldn't accept the help easily, but Brody was still going to try. Probably for as long as she could she was going to try and make sure that nothing bad came to Darya, especially if she solved their case for them.

"That's admirable, I think." Gibbs clearly agreed that, in the end, helping Darya was a really good idea. Or maybe he just didn't want to get into a fight with her about it in public. Sometimes it was hard to tell which way he was falling on any given topic when they were out. More often than not, he saved the argument for when they were alone.

"Yeah. Me too." She looked over his shoulder at just the right moment to see a couple of the bigger muscles on Kovtun's payroll walk in the restaurant. Given the way they were looking around they were searching for someone, and knowing that they'd come here, it was probably for them. Not necessarily, but highly likely. Given Gibbs couldn't see where they were, she decided to give him a heads up. "A couple of Kovtun's goons just walked in."

Gibbs' face told the whole story of that situation, and she wasn't really going to disagree with him. She'd gotten far too comfortable with the two of them sat alone, having anyone watching them, or joining them, would ruin the mood. But they didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. If Kovtun wanted them, then he did. That was where their free choice on the matter ended. "Oh great, I'm not really in the mood for company tonight."

"Might not be him, and we've almost finished here anyway." She shook her head a little and groaned. Generally, goons mean Kovtun was on his way, at least that was her experience over the last several months. Normally, the only time there would be goons and Kovtun would be wherever he spent most of his time was when he was going to kill someone, or at least make their life very, very unpleasant. "We could always just ignore them." She grinned a little and took another sip of her drink.

"You're right, as usual." Gibbs grinned after a couple of minutes, and she just shook her head and frowned a little. She was mostly teasing with pretending to be concerned by his sudden decision that she was usually right. She was, but that wasn't exactly the point she should have been making. At least not at this moment, which meant he probably wanted something, and she could probably give a good guess what it was.

"Now you're trying to get on my good side." She smirked a little, turning her frown around almost immediately. It was much more fun for her to leave it at that, especially when he just smiled back at her. "You never really gave me your opinion." She ended up commenting, thinking back to what had started the conversation to begin with. Brody, however, kept an eye on the goons, making sure that she knew where they were, and how much closer they were getting.

"Not now Ana." He replied after a minute, slipping completely back into his character and looking up just in time for the two large men to stand beside their table. Brody took the cue to laugh slightly, and was still chuckling when Gibbs innocently turned to the newcomers and smiled innocently. "Can I help you boys?"

"You need to come with us." The bigger of the two said, not really leaving any room to argue, but as she turned to look up at them she shook her head and sighed, at which point she knew Gibbs would be able to jump on to the fact they were out having their dinner. He looked between them all then just focused on her, picking up her hand and kissing it gently.

"I'm having dinner with my wife." Were the only words he said a few seconds later, and she just smiled widely. It wasn't really that much of a bad thing, that they had that excuse, but one more look at the goons told her that they weren't buying anything they were selling, and they weren't going to be leaving empty handed.

"She's not your wife, you've finished eating. You need to come with us." The other goon spoke, and considering his size the voice was oddly high pitched. She didn't think she'd ever even looked at these two before, but they clearly knew something. It was only then that Brody started worrying that something had happened. That was confirmed a second later when goon number two broke into a toothless grin and looked between the two at the table. "Lugo wishes to speak to you."

"Excuse me, we still have dessert." She interjected, holding up the menu. They hadn't actually ordered dessert, but pretending that they were waiting for it would, she hoped, stall them for just a second. If she could hit the right button on her phone this would all be over. The police would know there was a problem and they would have assistance in seconds, but of course, she couldn't reach her phone.

Goon number one, in the meantime, seemed to be taking great joy in standing over them. Maybe he felt like he was being intimidating, maybe he felt like they needed someone to stand watching them, whatever it was, it was more than a little creepy, and she wasn't sure she liked it. After another few seconds he just dipped down and spoke into her ear almost silently. "We know who you are."

"What?" She snapped, a moment of panic spreading through her. This had been the worry, that eventually Kovtun would figure out that they weren't who they said they were. The fact they had lasted this long had been little short of a miracle, but that was clearly now up. She bit her lip and looked at Gibbs, who clearly hadn't heard what had been whispered to her, but it seemed like her reaction had made him worry.

"Special Agent Meredith Brody." Goon number two quickly said, pointing at her with that same toothless grin, he actually now seemed more pleased with himself than goon number one had seemed a minute earlier. Especially when he turned his finger to Gibbs. "Senior Special Agent Leroy Gibbs." He announced, and she just caught Gibbs' eye and shook her head. She knew exactly what he was going to do, because he would think it was the only answer, but it wasn't. She couldn't let this happen right in front of her. "We know all, and Gibbs you need to come with us."

"No way, no." She said as Gibbs silently began standing up. She jumped up to her feet and went to stand in front of him, shrugging off the hand of one of the goons as she did. She put her hand in the middle of Gibbs' chest and just shook her head. Leaving with them was suicide, and Brody really wasn't about that. "You can't go."

"Look, if I go maybe I can make this so you're safe, OK." Gibbs muttered quietly, then leant forward and kissed her softly, then kissed her cheek and whispered almost silently in her ear. That seemed like it was becoming people's preferred way of speaking to her, and it was getting uncomfortable, but in this situation, it worked. "Sound the alarm, get to safety."

"Gibbs!" Brody was about a second away from stomping her foot, but she knew this was for the best, and she was almost certain that no matter what he would go anyway. Now she just needed to make a show of acting indignant. When he brushed past her she made a grab for his arm, but he shrugged it off, managing to briefly squeeze her hand as he did.

"Just do it, OK, do it." He shouted back over his shoulder from near the door, and she ended up just standing beside the table for a minute, trying to formulate a plan. She knew from Darya that Kovtun only took people one place, and she was fairly certain she knew where it was. That was score one in Brody's column. As she thought about it, she frowned for a second, then eventually grabbed her belongings and Gibbs jacket and started out of the restaurant, calling the emergency number she'd been given.

"Blackley." She stated as soon as there was an answer. She knew that on the other end of the phone, the local DI would be the one picking up the call. Brody didn't have time to faff around with the little insignificant issues like politeness, there was a big issue in play, and she knew they needed to get out ahead of it now, otherwise finding Gibbs would become harder by the minute. "We've been made, I'm coming to the station."

There was just an intake of air in place of any immediate reaction, and Brody was too busy walking to care right away. If she hadn't needed instructions she would have just hung up, but she needed to know that Blackley would be there, and that they would be able to find Gibbs as fast as possible. "Brody what?" Was the eventual response that she got, and all Brody felt was annoyed that she would have to explain something when she just wanted to be doing.

"They've taken Gibbs, they knew our names, knew that he was the senior." She ticked off the things that had made her panic in reverse order. While she was a little panicked that they'd been made, it had been something they were expecting long before now. As it was, they had made it far longer under their assumed identities than she would have thought. "We've been made." She finished, and she heard immediate movement on Blackley's end of the line.

"I'll be there in ten." Were the only words, then a dial tone. That was enough to tell Brody that Blackley was taking this immediately as seriously as she was. She wasn't really sure exactly what the problem was, or why it would matter what was said in how serious anyone took this, but right now Brody didn't have an option, she needed to go with the flow here.

"Shit." Was the only word she could think of as she approached the station, and jogging up the steps made her realise exactly how screwed they were now if they couldn't pull this all out. Pacing around the waiting area was all she could do until Blackley showed up, and while she was waiting Brody just mumbled the word 'shit' to herself a lot. It took less than 10 minutes, but that seemed like a lifetime.

"Alright, tell me exactly what happened." Blackley seemed far calmer than Brody felt, and maybe that was part of the problem. Maybe the problem now was more that she knew they were both in danger, and that she needed to find Gibbs, and find him fast. Otherwise she probably wouldn't be seeing him again. That wasn't the way she was going to end this assignment. They had unfinished business to attend to, and they needed to work on that.


	22. Tell Me What You Know

Almost as soon as Blackley arrived she got down to business, and that was something that Brody had always appreciated in the DI. She didn't take any nonsense, and that made her feel a lot more confident. Brody was watching her as she walked in and didn't even leave the main area, just moved off to a quiet corner. "Alright, tell me exactly what happened."

"Gibbs and I had nothing case related on this evening, so we went out for dinner. Just something simple at the Thai place in the Printworks." She knew that she needed to start at the beginning, but that definitely wasn't the easiest of places to begin. A few hours earlier they had been going about their daily lives, nothing really changing from yesterday. Now, everything was upside down and they were basically fighting for their lives.

"Less about the evening, more about the abduction." Blackley interrupted, which managed to purely annoy Brody. Did she really think that the beginning, the circumstances, weren't important. They were, and Brody knew that she needed to explain that to explain how it had gotten to this point. To show that, no matter what, she and Gibbs had tried to protect lives.

"It's all connected. As we were eating, we noticed a couple of Kovtun's henchmen come in. I never learnt their names." She struggled for a minute, trying to see if she knew them from some odd conversation she only half remembered, but she didn't. Mentally she'd had a few names for them, not all that many were repeatable in public. "Tweedledee and Tweedledum would do."

"Brody." Blackley cautioned, and she kind of understood why. While explaining the background was necessary, probably explaining her nicknames for the various passing people in and out of Kovtun's business. There was simply no way that she could have possibly learnt all of the names of the people who were in and out of the organisation.

"Sorry. Anyway." She shook her head a little and tried to focus herself on what she actually officially needed to tell her. "They stalked around the restaurant for a while until they came up to our table, told Gibbs that Kovtun wanted to see him, and that they knew who we were." It was really quite obvious that Blackley wasn't entirely certain how she knew they'd figured it out, so she was going to have to be more specific. "Then they used our names and status. Special Agent Brody, Senior Special Agent Gibbs."

"Take a deep breath, we'll find him." Blackley said quietly and reached out to rub Brody's shoulder in a reassuring manner. It didn't really help her feel any better, but right now it was all she had, and she was going to keep hold of it. At least it was something. "We have one of the most connected cities in the world, they'll be on a camera somewhere." That was definitely something that helped them solve this, she was certain of that.

"Kovtun's girlfriend, she told me that he only has one place he takes people." That was one of the things that Darya had said that was helpful to them all. Darya kept things close to her chest, and since she hadn't come to speak to the police yet, Brody knew they didn't have anything. So she decided to clarify on that, she was trying to slow herself down but it wasn't working, she knew that. "To the warehouse out near the quays. He'll be there I know it."

"Brody, you need to slow down and breathe. Think this through." Blackley was clearly becoming the personification of Brody's subconscious, considering that that was exactly what she was trying to tell herself. It still wasn't working, even with somebody telling her that she needed to slow down. She was trying but it just wasn't going to work. She probably wouldn't stop until she had Gibbs back with her.

"This is not how the end of this mission was supposed to go. We still had three weeks." She'd been thinking about that since the goons had showed up, and just couldn't believe that so close to the end he'd worked it out, or discovered who they really were. Why couldn't he have just waited for three weeks until they were ready for it all to be over. "Kovtun couldn't wait to figure out who we are for three weeks."

It seemed like Blackley really had gotten to understand Brody well, it hadn't been too hard really. "Do I need to get you some whiskey to calm down?" She asked, and Brody stared at her for a minute. Then she had to think seriously about whether or not a whiskey would be a good idea right now.

"That'll just hype me up more." She shook her head, the decision being that it wasn't going to actually work. She would probably end up running her mouth off, and that wasn't actually going to help at all. Brody knew that, in this type of situation, adding alcohol would make it harder for her to deal with anything.

"Brody, we'll get this worked out, and we'll find where he is." Blackley clearly tried to reassure her again. The truth was though that she didn't exactly know what was going on, and no matter what Blackley was not going to be able to find her simply. "I promise you that." She continued, it was very, very difficult to face this situation, but she could do it and keep faith that she'd find Gibbs before anything happened to him. That she could probably make sure of.

"I want to be on the team, I'm compromised now anyway so it doesn't matter, and I've probably got more firearms training than the majority of your guys." As an agent she trained pretty much every day until the beginning of this assignment. She needed to do everything that she could to make sure that this worked out.

"Brody..." Blackley said quietly. It was obvious that she was going to say something else, but Brody started pacing away, trying to work off a little more of the nervous energy that she'd built up again. It was too hard for her sometimes when she was hyped up to stay standing still. That was going to need to be something to work on.

"Tatyana?" Came a slightly fearful accented voice from behind her, and when she turned around Brody saw Darya standing there, looking more confused than anything else. Seeing that look on Darya's face made Brody momentarily regret that she hadn't been able to tell her things all along, but now it was time to actually tell her everything.

"Darya. Hi." She just froze though, even though she knew what she needed to say and do. Darya's face had just made her think about everything again. Brody had a million things she could say, but she wanted to wait until they were in private, or something close to private. Right now, privacy was a luxury that Brody didn't have.

"What is going on here?" Darya asked quietly, and Brody could see the pain in her face. Darya knew more than she was letting on, but she would wait until Brody told her, she knew that. Because whatever Darya was, she wasn't the type who would just accept the conclusions she made. That probably came as a result of living with Kovtun for as long as she had.

"OK, we need to talk." Brody sighed eventually, deciding that she really couldn't put it off any longer. She needed to accept that, in some ways, she was going to need to let Darya in. Most of what she knew was true, as that was about how Brody herself had felt. All of that had been accurate. "Have you got somewhere where we can?" She asked, turning to Blackley and nodding a little. She was sure that she could still get through to Darya if she just had the chance.

"Sure." Blackley nodded after a few minutes then just looked Darya over before turning and opening a door into the offices and guiding them through before opening the door to an empty office. She just gave Brody a look before she shut the door, clearly trying to remind her that they needed Darya on their side.

As she walked through the door, Darya looked at Brody with a mixture of fear and distrust, and Brody couldn't really blame her for that at all. As Blackley left and shut the door, Brody motioned to the table and for them both to sit down, almost immediately though, Darya was asking questions. "What is happening?"

"Lugo took Sander, because he found out who we really are." Yes, that was going to require explaining, but it would let Darya know why she was so jumpy right now. The fact that Gibbs was having who knew what done to him was really putting her on edge. She hated it, and given that she had experienced it she knew that it wasn't going to be the most pleasant thing Gibbs had ever been through.

"Who you... what?" It was clear that Darya wasn't following immediately. given that Brody had been one person to her for months, learning that a friend was suddenly not at all who she thought had to be pushing her in a million different directions. It probably wasn't all that surprising that she reacted with shock.

"Remember how I said we weren't cops? I lied." She said it as simply and honestly as she could. She had lied, and she was certain that Darya would prefer it straight. "Well, technically I didn't lie, but I did omit the fact that we work in law enforcement, but we're not technically cops." She smiled a little, and now was the time for her to come perfectly clean, and refer to herself by her real name for the first time in months. "The person you've come to know as Aleksander Volkov is actually an NCIS Senior Agent called Gibbs, and I'm an NCIS Junior Agent called Brody."

"You lied to me." Darya said, and the pain in her voice was obvious. Brody actually felt terrible about that, but right now that wasn't at all her priority. That was always going to be the result of this assignment, and Brody regretted it. Hopefully though, Darya would move past it.

"I had to Darya, it was my job. But my friendship with you was genuine, and everything we spoke about, about my sister... That was true." She remembered that, originally, she wasn't meant to have a sister. That hadn't lasted though, she ended up talking about Emily once and it had changed the story. "I really do have a twin sister, she's just not in Russia, she's in America."

"You said you wanted to help me?" Darya questioned again, and for a moment Brody wanted to take it all back and jut go back to being Tatyana. Now though she needed to convince Darya that she still wanted to help. That really she'd wanted to help all along. She genuinely did want to help too, and there was still an awful lot that she and Darya could do for each other.

"I still do. I think you knew from the other day I wasn't being entirely truthful, didn't you?" Brody had seen the look on Darya's face, and she knew that beneath the exterior, there was nothing that Darya missed. She noticed, and she remembered. It made her a good witness, but it also meant Brody couldn't imagine her not knowing. "You're a much smarter woman than you're given credit for, Darya. I know that." Kovtun had sadly underestimated Darya Polzin, and truthfully, for a long time so had Brody. She wasn't going to do that again. "You could still make all the difference in the world, if you decided to testify against Lugo."

"I will. I will tell you everything you need to know, and I need you to help me." Darya took a deep breath, and Brody suddenly realised the enormity of what was happening right now. This was going to be how they solved the whole case. "You are right, I knew you weren't truthful. But I also knew that you were really trying to help me." Darya ended up smiling, and after a few moments Brody started smiling back. She would still help, and they could still end this. She needed to add to that though, because if they confirmed where Gibbs was, she would have to go and help.

Hopefully though, that would be something that Darya could understand, and would accept. Because while the case was important, right now getting Gibbs back was even more important to her. "Once they find where Gibbs is though, I will have to go and help rescue him."

"There may have been many things you weren't honest about since I met you, but I feel like your feelings for him weren't one of them." Darya's simple observation made Brody think for a moment. From almost the first minute of this mission, she and Gibbs had been teasing each other and acting like a couple. Somewhere along the line the 'acting' part had fallen away.

"You'd be right." She admitted, deciding it was better now to be honest than to try and pretend that Darya wasn't totally correct. Brody had fallen hard, and that was a problem. Admitting it to someone other than the people who already knew wasn't going to happen, but she knew herself, and she knew that Gibbs knew. Now Darya knew and, probably as soon as they got home, Emily would too. That would be where it ended on her part. She didn't need everyone knowing her business, and how she felt about Gibbs, and about this assignment. So much had happened in such a relatively short time.

"I thought so." There was a soft smiled, and Brody had to admit that it was a little nice that someone had realised her feelings were genuine. She'd need to get over them soon, she was sure of that, but how she felt about Gibbs was going to take a while. "I will be OK, once I start." She nodded, and Brody smiled a little. Glad to see that Darya was confident. A lot of the problems in this type of situation came when people still weren't sure they were making the right decision. It seemed like Darya was at peace with the decision she'd made. "I will have my solicitor here too. I can call him."

"Let me go get an officer here, then we'll get this negotiation going." She stood up and stepped to the door. Looking back at Darya as she called her solicitor, Brody smiled a little. She was genuinely happy that this seemed to be working out, but right now she was worried more about Gibbs, and that was colouring everything. One part of the case was solved. Now she just needed to fix the other.


	23. It All Comes Tumbling Down

Sitting in the interview room with Darya made Brody feel a little more at home. It seemed like a long time since she'd been leading an interview, but it didn't go away. She knew she was a good interrogator, she always had been. But it was really nice to be reminded of that. It was also nice to have it proven that she hadn't lost it, even if she wasn't actually in charge here. Blackley had send another investigator in while she continued searching. About an hour later there was a knock at the door and a uniformed officer around her age looked around the door. "Brody?"

"Yeah?" She asked, looking at him and prayed that it was good news. She wasn't sure that she could take bad news right now, because bad news would end this assignment in the worst possible way. Instead there was a slight smile, and Brody knew that meant they'd found him. Watching as everyone else turned their attention to the young officer in the doorway.

"We got him, you're coming right?" Came the very unnecessary question, the truth was that she was always going to be going on that. There was no way she was ever going to miss it. Not when it was someone she cared about deeply. The truth was that she was actually a little torn about leaving Darya alone, but she would be even guiltier if she wasn't there to help Gibbs when he needed her.

"Yeah." She stood up and frowned a little. At the very least she needed to make it so that Darya knew that she'd be back as soon as she could be. She wasn't going to leave her alone. That wouldn't be fair when she started this too. If she hadn't started Darya on this course, nothing that had happened to her recently would have been a problem. Making sure that she knew Brody wasn't abandoning her again was important. "I'll be back soon."

"Go, find your... Gibbs." It was clear that it took Darya a minute to mentally adjust the name. Unsurprisingly really. It was probably still hard for Darya to wrap her head around them not being who she'd been so convinced who they were. She knew that was the hard part, and considering it had taken her a while to adjust to being Tatyana she couldn't expect Darya to turn fast. After a few seconds she nodded and squeezed Darya's shoulder, then just walked out and started to the room that Blackley had set up for all of this.

"Report?" She commanded walking in, not even caring that she wasn't technically in control. She wanted to know what was happening, and exactly what they knew, and she wasn't going to take any nonsense about it. Clearly Blackley had told the officers to just accept what Brody was saying. That was probably a good thing, because it meant that Brody wasn't going to be arguing with people.

"One of our spotters saw him being taken in." A female officer said, one that Brody hadn't seen before, but that wasn't unheard of. Given that Brody didn't actually know all that many people here. She shouldn't have been that surprised she didn't know this one. "Nobody was at the warehouse, and right now it's still just Gibbs and the two who took him." The woman continued, and after a second Brody narrowed her eyes thinking.

"Right." She muttered quietly, just thinking about that situation. If Kovtun was so pissed, surely he'd be there. He wouldn't take Gibbs somewhere completely empty and unused. It would defeat the purpose of separating them. It wouldn't make sense either, and one of the things Brody had learnt was that Kovtun didn't do anything that he didn't have to do.

"You sure you're up for this?" She heard beside her, and turning her head slightly meant that she could see Blackley talking to her. It felt like that was another unnecessary question, of course Brody was up for it. She wanted not only to make sure that Gibbs was alright, but that Kovtun wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again. That was the most important side of this assignment, she was certain of that. Because people like Darya didn't deserve what Kovtun did to her. "You can't go in, you can't have a weapon. But as soon as they clear it you're in." That was not what she was expecting.

She wasn't going to be much use sat outside doing nothing. Wasn't the whole point of keeping her around in this situation that she was one of the most experienced people at this. Then again, it was probably best that she didn't. it wasn't going to stop her from questioning the DI. It wasn't that she didn't trust Blackley's officers, it was just that she would feel much better if she was more involved. "Nadine."

"It's the law Brody, I can't change it just for you." She shook her head, and while Brody understood that, she hated that it was the way this was going to go. Blackley looked like she regretted it too, but that wasn't going to change it, and probably Blackley would be there making sure that Brody didn't cause any problems.

"Where is he?" She asked, looking straight at Blackley. Right now it wasn't going to change or compromise their situation. Kovtun already knew where he was, and the police knowing wasn't going to get him moved. Not at this point. While Brody was certain that some things were still up in the air, she was sure they were going to get there in time.

"We think in the one you were held in on the Quays, we're not sure for certain it's where you were held, but it's highly likely." Blackley admitted, and Brody was sure that when she was there she'd know. Most of the day she was held was a blur, but the sounds wouldn't have changed, and they were the one thing that she knew she could remember. "We're leaving now."

"Good." Was the only response she could think of as she started following Blackley out to where the police vehicles were stored. The one thing that Brody wasn't prepared for was this not ending well. She was so positive. So convinced that she knew what was going to happen and how this was all going to end.

The car ride behind the two vans was almost the most stressful thing Brody had ever experienced. She was sure that it was no easier for everyone else, they were all well aware that one of their own was in danger, and needed to be helped out. It didn't actually help them feel better though, Brody had been on those teams as a probie, and it had always made things harder. Looking over at Blackley showed that she was as nervous as Brody felt. They stayed in the car as they watched the teams going into the warehouse, and listening to the radio as they walked around was harder than she thought.

"Two bodies here." Was the first report Brody actually paid attention to. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and after a moment forced herself to keep breathing steadily. All she wanted was for a clarification, explaining who or what they were. After what seemed like an entire lifetime, there was a crackle and the radio spat out the information she'd so desperately needed. "Dead... a few hours."

"Keep looking." Blackley ordered, and Brody just started to play with the hem of her shirt, trying not to let the nerves get to her. The waiting was always the hardest part, she knew that, and it was very strange for her that she didn't have any control at all over the situation.

"We have an older male, unconscious, otherwise seemingly unhurt." Came the next radio communication, and that made her sit up, because the likelihood was that was Gibbs. She looked to Blackley, willing the other woman to let Brody go, but she just shook her head and mouthed 'wait'.

"Clear the building, keep someone with him." She then said out loud, still shaking her head at Brody. It was killing her to sit on her hands and wait, but she knew that it meant she would be able to run straight away, as soon as it was clear for her to do so. She would sprint the length of the warehouse if she needed.

"Yes ma'am." The radio crackled again, and while there was more things said Brody had long since stopped paying attention to them. It didn't seem to matter as much now. She knew that Gibbs was alive, and that she would be able to see him soon. She was more worried that she wouldn't get in there fast enough.

"Clear?" Blackley asked after a few more minutes. It was becoming obvious that she was as impatient as Brody was.

"Yes ma'am. We have four to take in to custody." The voice sounded certain, and that again made Brody feel better. She didn't know who they'd caught or what they were doing, but she was certain she'd find that out before long too. Right now, she was too impatient to get in there and start to reach the end of all of this.

"Send someone out to lead Agent Brody in." Blackley smiled looking over to her, and she was certain that the sigh of relief she let out was heard all around the world. It was a relief knowing that she could soon see how good or bad this was for herself.

Impatient really wasn't the word that could have been used as she waited, and then she was glad that her guide realised that she needed to be in there. They took off at a brisk jog, and Brody was more than happy to follow at that pace. As soon as she got into the warehouse she saw Gibbs on the floor. There was no obvious injury on him, and so she didn't feel bad in pushing him to wake up. "Gibbs, hey. Come on. Jethro." She shook him gently, then shook him harder when at first he didn't respond. After a moment he blinked a little and moaned, then his eyes opened and focused on her.

"Meredith." He whispered looking at her groggily. She just nodded for a minute, putting her hand on his chest to stop him from trying to move too fast. That wouldn't be good for him, and it would probably have just made her even more worried about him. Not that she wasn't already given that he'd been unconscious, but she would be even more worried if he pushed himself.

"Hey, it's OK." She whispered after a few minutes, still gently pressing him down so he didn't try to get up too fast and end up hurting himself. He stopped fighting her at that and just laid there for a few seconds, blinking away the cobwebs. It was clear that he wasn't really sure where he was, but she hoped that it would come back as he slowly woke himself up.

"You found me?" Gibbs muttered eventually, clearly having played through the last several hours in his mind he now realised exactly how lucky he was that they'd found him, and that he was alive. She knew that and she was certain that, by now, Gibbs would have worked that out too. By rights he shouldn't be alive, and Brody really wanted to know where Kovtun was so that she could learn why.

"Yeah. I found you." She smiled and nodded, and thought that at least she could give him the good news. Their case was over, and their being compromised wasn't going to matter in the end. Darya's testimony, along with everything she and Gibbs had discovered, would mean that Kovtun was going away for a very, very long time. "It's over, Darya's giving a full statement to the police."

"You're here." There was a small smile at that, and she finally removed her hand, deciding that he was not going to do something spectacularly stupid now, and he'd probably come around enough that he wasn't going to severely hurt himself even if he did.

"I'm right here." She replied, and then was a little shocked when he pushed himself to a sitting position and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her with all he could. She felt the urgency in it and responded in kind, only pulling away after a few seconds and putting her hand on his cheek. A few hours earlier she'd been convinced he'd be gone, and she'd never see him again. While she'd pretended to never lose faith, she had. "I never thought I'd see you again, I thought Kovtun would have killed you."

"Me too." He admitted, and he just rested his forehead against hers. She felt the officer who was stood with them looking away awkwardly, but for the moment Brody didn't really care. She had Gibbs back with her, and he was safe. That was important to her right now, and therefore the opinions of people she didn't know and didn't care about didn't matter at all. "Arkady and Dmitri are dead." She nodded a little, not removing her forehead from his, but letting him know that she knew.

"I saw coming in. I'll tell Darya we were too late." She frowned a little, not wanting to imagine the pain that was going to come with that knowledge. Especially given that Brody knew Darya was right, and her brother had had nothing to do with who was following Kovtun. That was the police, though Brody hadn't known about it until Blackley had admitted it. She watched Gibbs another few seconds, worrying about him like always. "Are you alright?"

"Better now you're here." He answered, and for a moment she couldn't help but just smirk at him. It certainly made her feel better that he was able to tease her like that. She stroked his cheek again softly, pulling back a little further to look at him. She still couldn't see any obvious injuries, and that made her feel better too. "I'm fine."

"Get checked over, then we have to go debrief." She wasn't looking forward to that bit. Telling people what she was good at and what she sucked at over the course of an assignment was the thing she was the worst at doing in the entire world. After that though, she and Gibbs would be able to go and share the last few hours in their temporary home. Then they could go to their actual homes. "Then we can both go back to the apartment and sleep a little while we arrange to go home." She nodded a little and smiled widely. That was sure to convince him to actually behave for the medics, she hoped at least.

"I just want to spend a day with you." He commented quietly, and that was the softest thing she'd ever heard him say. She was quite happy to hear that, and it made her feel a lot better knowing that he just wanted to be alone with her. Given that she really wanted to be his and only his for a few hours.

"We can do that." She nodded a little stroking his cheek. There was not that much now that was going to stop them from doing that. The only thing they had left to do was wrap everything up, and she was certain that they were going to be able to do. "Let's wrap the case up first."

"That's a good idea." Gibbs smiled at her again, then pulled her in to him and kissed her hard. It seemed that he was just so relieved to be found alive that he didn't care who saw them, which fit how Brody was feeling right now perfectly. This was going to be over, sooner rather than later, and she really didn't want to waste any time. Especially not now he was safe, and the case was over.


	24. And In The End

**OK, this is the last chapter of this fic, and it sort of sets up a possible sequel. So, I hope you enjoy.  
Shin xx**

* * *

A hospital trip and a few hours in debriefing hadn't really changed anything, and all they'd really learnt was that Kovtun had been arrested at the airport, and Darya had been given immunity. So getting back to the apartment had reminded them both that this was the last day they'd be here. They'd walked back, and gotten a phonecall with the details of them going home. It was suddenly sinking in on her that she was going to be going home soon. She had already called Emily and told her that the assignment was over, which meant her sister was making huge plans for a movie night when she got home. Brody was ready to go home, but she also didn't want to leave this place, if only because that would mean leaving all this behind. "We're going home in the morning."

"Well, our flight to DC is at 1pm." He replied with a smirk, and she shoved him jokingly, shaking her head as she did. She couldn't help but burst out laughing afterwards, especially when the expression on his face didn't change. She couldn't help but keep laughing at him, her smile growing a little when she realised that he was mostly playing with her. She could respond to that in kind, at least.

"Don't be pedantic, we'll have to leave here in the morning." She smirked a little, and that was when she realised that they were leaving in only a little more than 12 hours. They'd be back in America in less than 24 hours, and she'd be back with Emily and her friends. That was going to be the strangest thing after so long, followed by the fact she wouldn't be seeing Gibbs every day. It was clear that he was thinking on that too.

"I know." He ended up saying a few seconds later, then just pulled her through the apartment to the bed. Neither of them were going to sleep yet, but she had to admit that this was a far more comfortable place to be for the conversation she knew that she needed to have, they both needed to have. Without it, there was a huge question hanging over them. One she didn't like to have.

"What's going to happen when we get back to the States Jethro?" She asked, as soon as they were both curled in the bed together. It was much more comforable than she had been when they were stood up, and that made her feel a little bit about this situation. Not that anything about this situation made her feel good. She actually already missed him, and they weren't even apart yet. "We can't go on like this."

"I know." He replied again, and she knew that he knew. Right now though that wasn't helping, so she elbowed him a little, and he kissed her cheek after he laughed. Though the look on his face told her that she really wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "I guess, we have to just think of this as a happy memory."

"Yeah." She admitted, thinking about it herself. She wanted to try and find a way around it all. She hadn't managed to find one yet, and she'd been thinking about it for weeks. She'd known this was all coming to an end. One way or another, this was done too, probably the moment they left this apartment tomorrow.

"You're a junior agent, and I'm a supervisory agent." He continued, and she really didn't need for that to be pointed out. She already knew exactly what their individual positions were when they were at home. Add on that he was considerably older, with a lot more experience, and undoubtedly a lot more baggage.

She couldn't help but laugh a little at the fact he still felt the need to point it out to her. "This time it's my turn to say I know." She answered sarcastically, and then just rolled over so she was laid on her front looking at him. It was easier to sit and talk like this, which was exactly what she needed to happen.

"It's an unavoidable conflict of interest." He pushed on, kissing her cheek again as he did. Clearly he knew what she was thinking, and she knew what he was trying to ensure she knew. The truth was that she could live with that, because it was nice that he wanted to make sure she was informed. Right now though, she would rather have continued living in denial.

"Yeah. I understand why we can't." She confirmed, looking at him again and wondering if she should roll over again so she could elbow him again if he annoyed her. That was one of the upsides of being who she was. "It's probably for the best anyway. We're hardly the most compatible people in the real world." She had to make that point. No matter how much she loved him, and she did love him, they weren't compatible at all.

"I know, but I wish we didn't have to." That admission was not something she'd expected. In fact it was the opposite. For some reason she'd thought that he'd be relieved when this was over. Clearly her surprise registered on her face, as he leant over and kissed her then continued speaking. "The last few weeks have been some of the best I've had in recent years." That was also a little more surprising than she would have thought, though from all he'd said, he hadn't had the best experiences recently.

"Same." She nodded, because she really was happy that she'd managed to find someone on a mission like this that she could connect with, but she also knew that wasn't the best thing. When they got home, they'd both need to focus on being at home. She hadn't been home for a while, and she missed it, but she also didn't really know how to act when she wasn't undercover too. "But we need to focus on adjusting to being at home."

"Whatever happens, you always have an ally in me." Gibbs said, stroking a hand up her side with a smile. It was a sure-fire way for him to distract her, and she hated that it was already working. Eventually she gave up and just let him continue distracting her, it was easier to do this than to try and continue pretending it wasn't distracting her.

"Yeah, same here." She assured him, very glad that she could tell him that. It probably wouldn't mean much from her, but it was what she could do. It was actually now almost all she could do.

"Let's just focus on tonight." He muttered in the end then leant over and kissed her hard. That was something else he could do to distract her, and she was ready for that. It was definitely more fun doing this than continuing to talk about the more painful side of this. As they moved even closer to one another she just forgot about everything that was coming up. Brody was now just ignoring everything else.

They wasted most of the night, way into the morning, and neither had slept at all until they were on the plane back to the US. She didn't normally sleep on planes, never had, but after everything that had gone on she was exhausted, and she ended up falling asleep on Gibbs' shoulder. When they landed, they didn't go straight back to their lives, instead, they went back to the NCIS headquarters. She just really hoped that they weren't expected to sit through another debriefing. As soon as they walked through the doors and saw the look on the directors' face, she was sure they were going home. "Welcome home Agent Gibbs, Agent Brody."

"Thank you director." They answered in unison, and she almost laughed aloud hearing that they both still had the accent they'd adopted in their months undercover. She didn't even realise anymore, so it was going to take a great amount of time for her to lose it. The funnier thing, for her, was that right now she could imagine the hard time that Emily was going to give her when she got home, where she already knew Emily was waiting.

"You both have some leave, go home." The director waved them both off, then as he walked away he stopped and turned back to them. Neither of the two agents had actually had time to move when he continued speaking, looking straight at her and blanking Gibbs. "Agent Brody, you have a new assignment when you return." That didn't sound good. She hated reassignments.

"Yes sir." She ended up saying a minute later. Brody actually had no idea what this was going to mean for her, other than that she was going to be spending her time off packing up her apartment, if Emily hadn't done that already. Emily seemed to know whenever she was going to change jobs long before she knew herself. After another minute the Director walked away, and she just looked to Gibbs and shrugged a little, thinking about what was coming up. "This is going to be a little weird."

Gibbs looked at her after a few seconds, clearly not figuring out what she meant, or why she was saying it now. But mostly what she knew right now was that it was going to be weird, and he was going to find it that way too, even though he might not have actually said it himself. "Why?"

"I've been with you every day for seven months." She had loved that, and for the last 5, she and Gibbs had been whatever it was they could call this. An affair, a relationship? She certainly didn't know what to call it. Eventually, maybe, they would figure it out. Either that or it no longer mattered. "Not spending tonight with you will be strange."

"It will, but you have a sister waiting for you. You won't even think about it." He said and gave her that little smile that he reserved for doing something he really didn't want to do. She'd gotten used to seeing that smile recently, which was how she knew exactly what it meant. It hurt now that that smile was being given to her because of something they needed to do.

"Don't be so sure about that." She smiled and shook her head. She knew that no matter what, he was going to be playing on her mind for a while. They had gotten so close, and done so much. The fact they wouldn't see each other every day, or wake up together every morning, was still taking a few minutes to get her head around. Now though, they both needed to say goodbye. "I'll see you around Gibbs."

"You too Brody." He kissed her cheek then turned and left. She watched him feeling a little heartsick for just a moment. While she'd known that this was going to happen, it had needed to, she was still a little broken by it. They had totally separate lives, and their jobs weren't compatible, but they probably could have worked it out if they tried. Neither of them really had the time to try, and that was a shame but they would be alright. Eventually, they'd cross paths again, of that she was certain.


End file.
